Quidditch School Championships
by surf all day and do the hula
Summary: Chapter 19 guys! C'mon, Anna's returned back to All Hallows for her end of year exams, but what follows is more annoyance of her friends which naturally is all Sirius' fault... in some odd way which only she understands...
1. I'm On My Way

'Anna McKeller!' Mr Pryor called out.

'Present!' I called back; I jumped up and ran up into the minibus that was taking us to Hogwarts. By us I mean the All Hallows College of Magic representing Quidditch team and of course our reserves. We were going to Hogwarts for the Schools Quidditch Tournament. I sat down next to my best friend Hayley Ballard, she played the Seeker, I'm a Beater, alongside my twin brother Avery, and of course the rest of the team is Keeper Rory Wilson, and the three Chasers Matilda Roberts, Harley Johnson and Johnno Quinn.

'Ok well now that everyone is here, I'd like to go through some rules while on our trip,' Mr Pryor said, and everyone moaned, 'Yes well I know how much you love your rules,' insert eye roll here, 'First rule being that you still have to attend regular classes with the other people in your year at Hogwarts so you'll be given special timetables, so you can go to your classes and then we'll have a specific time for training everyday and it will rotate on a roster.

'Rule two, you will stay in your accommodation that has been provided, it may not be as great as your rooms here, but remember they're only temporary. Rule three, obey the rules at Hogwarts. Any questions?'

'Yeah, how long till we get there?' Avery asked, he always gets straight to the point. Someone laughed, even though it wasn't even funny, I think it was Faith Waldock, the reserve seeker, she's been hanging off him since last year, ever since he broke up with Jordana Davies, and I wish she'd hurry up and ask him out, it's annoying the hell out of me.

'I'd say about an hour, or maybe 45 minutes,' Mr Pryor said, 'what do you say Cactus?'

Cactus was the bus driver, no one knew his real name because nobody bothered asking him, we just call him Cactus because his head always looks like he shaves it but has been lazy and hasn't done it for about two weeks and is all prickly, 'erm, 'bout half an hour, yeah,' he's one of the groundsmen, he looks after all the technical stuff.

'Great half an hour on the bus,' I said to Hayley.

'I cant wait to get to Hogwarts, my Grandparents went there, they said its beautiful the scenery, and the food is awesome,' Hayley said.

'Good food? I'm in! Did you hear that Avery? The food is the best!' I called out to him. Avery loves his food more than me.

'Whoo hoo! I was worried they'd have cooks like Grandma,' he called back.Our Grandma,even though she's a witch she doesn't use magic when she cooks, which is a pity because it might actually taste good if she did use it.

Cactus started the bus, with a bang and it shot off into the air. It's a fast bus, faster than planes that muggles use.

'Does anyone have any food?' I yelled out down the bus from the backseat.

'What about all the food we bought before the trip?' Hayley asked, and no I didn't eat it, otherwise I wouldn't fit inside this bus, let alone my skirt. Yeah we had to wear our formal uniform, personally I think we should have worn our Quidditch uniform, much more sporty.

'It's in my big bag, in the luggage hold,' I replied, 'now who has food!' I ran down the bus looking at all the other people, I know, sixth years would give me food, I love being a senior. 'Monique, hey, got any food?'

She looked up at me with her big brown eyes, 'umm, yeah, there's some chips I think, you can have them, I can't eat when on the move, it makes me sick,'

'Anna sit down,' Mr Pryor yelled to me, teachers can be a pain in the arse sometimes.

'Just a second,' I replied.

'Anna now!' Monique gave me the chips.

'Ok, ok I'm going,' I thanked her and ran back up to where me, Hayley and Matilda where sitting, 'got some, they are _Kettle Honey Baked Ham, _hm sounds good,' I said plonking myself in the middle; I ate one of the chips, 'they're good, thanks Monique!'

'Anna, don't shout!' Mr Pryor shouted at me, hypocrite.

'He is so fussy!' I said, with a mouthful of chips.

'I reckon! He's such a hypocrite!' Matilda said.

'That's what I thought,'

'This bus is so boring, great at least ten minutes till we get there,' Hayley said, 'I like these chips, we should have bought some,'

We sat eating the chips for the last five minutes before Harley came and stole the rest off us, and he didn't get in trouble for walking around. I bet you anything Mr Pryor hates me, I mean this one time we had to do this muggle activities day, and we had to do this triple jump and he wouldn't let me go until I got it perfect! It took like ten rounds for me to get it right.

Finally the castle came into sight, 'hey look there it is!' It was ginormous, very princessy; it was one of those huge medieval castles with all the turrets, then the large grounds with a great Quidditch stadium… All Hallows is in the city with virtually no grounds, and we train for Quidditch and other sports with this door that when you walk through it, it opens up in a sport shed which is out in the middle of nowhere.

'Oh my god my Grandma was right!' Hayley said.

'I hate it when my Grandma's right, she always rubs it in our faces and when she's wrong she'll go on like it wasn't her fault,' Matilda said, did I mention Matilda is my cousin, so we share the same psychotic Grandmother.

'Who's this, oh Mamma,' Avery said as we all walked out of the bus. The whole school was there watching us get out, standing side by side. All the students were wearing the traditional black cloaks and hats, with their grey trousers or knee length skirts, white blouses and ties. Us on the other hand the girls wearing our long black skirts that came to about our shins, white blouses, black ties (the sixth years had crossy sort of ones), black blazers with the silver star emblem, and black stockings, and the guys were wearing black trousers, white shirts, long black ties and the same blazers, we probably looked like the bloody Mafia. Oh did I mention all our shoes were polished for once and we had our hats which weren't wizard hats, but those proper ones, with the wide brims and were hard and my dad says that they're made of rabbit. Mr Pryor went up to meet the Principal, or as they call them in Europe, Headmasters, Dumbledore. If I could only use one word to describe him, it would be old. He had the long grey beard, long grey hair, wrinkles and that certain aroma that most old people have. We walked out in two wonky lines up past everyone and up to were two seniors were, probably the head boy and girl, a tall, hot, guy with messy black hair and blue eyes, next to him was a girl with long reddish brown hair and green eyes.

They welcomed us into the hall, we were the second last to arrive, and we were still waiting on Serefina School, from Salem, America. We were led to one of the end tables to sit; the other schools that were in the hall as far as we could tell were Beauxbatons from France, Durmstrang from Northern Europe, Russia I think, the school from Africa, Haamid, they have the coolest uniform, its really bright, and Serefina was still too arrive.

'This place is awesome,' I whispered to Hayley.

'I reckon. Did you see that guy when we came in? The one with the Head Boy badge? He was so hot!' She whispered back to me.

'Hey I saw him first,' Matilda said applying another layer of her bright pink lipgloss.

'Actually I saw him first,' Harley said to the three of us, 'I am the Captain and I led you all up the stairs, now don't worry, I'm not going to steal him off you,'

We laughed; Harley can be such an idiot. When we sat down I pulled my walkman out of my bag and pressed play. Nothing. 'What the hell? Why isn't this working? I put new batteries in this morning; I haven't even used it since then!'

'Oh, didn't you hear Mr Pryor tell us yesterday in the meeting? Muggle appliances don't work here like they do so kindly at Hallows,' Rory said.

'What! That means no TV! I'm going to die!' I moaned.

'Hey, it's only what, like one term, so that's about eight or so weeks, two months, give or take,' Avery said. I hate him sometimes.

'Look on the Brightside, the Americans are here, and that hot guy sits at this table,' Hayley said to me. I looked up, she was right, he was coming over to this table with three other guys, one of them was **SUPER** hot, another was really cute, and the fourth was the biggest feral ever, I don't think he'd ever get a girlfriend. But the others… well by the looks of things they're seniors too, so that means I'll be having classes with them. Yippee!

Everyone was seated and all the teachers were sitting at the table up the front. Dumbledore rose, 'Welcome, guests, to Hogwarts, for the Inter-School Quidditch competition, I hope you find your stay here comfortable and the lodgings adequate…' adequate, there's a word I hate, meaning it's cheap but you can't complain. I looked up the table to see were those guys were, I sighed, I should've guessed there would be a group of girls hanging around them. The super hot one had messy black hair like the other one, just as tall, only with brown eyes and more of a rugged look to him. Ahh, I could look at him all day… he must have sensed me staring at him because he turned around and looked at me. Oh my god, he just smiled at me…

'Anna, Anna, hello, you awake? There's food now. Anna what are you looking at?' I tore my eyes off him. Thanks Hayley, you just distracted me from Mr Perfect just now. 'Anna, what are… oh I see, well no questions there, you can keep looking if you want,'

'Nah, I'll survive,' I lied, 'I'm hungry, and this food looks great,' I didn't lie that time. The food looked as though it was in a mail order magazine, the kind that looks superb, but when it arrives or when you cook it, it looks and tastes like crap. Not this though, yummy for my tummy.

Some of the sixth years were talking to other Hogwarts students at this table, too bad we were so popular and all the little juniors (or first and second years as they call them here) wanted to talk to us.

'What school are you from?' This girl asked me who looked like she was five. I hate talking to 11 year olds, because I always talk to them like they were babies and they think they're all grown up.

'All Hallows, in Australia, but New Zealand people also go there,' like Johnno and a few sixth years on the reserve team.

'Cool, is it like always hot and sunny in Australia?' Another girl asked. I love the dumb questions they ask, and their accents are so cute!

'Not always, because in the south, like in the Snowy Mountains it snows and they have a few ski resorts, and it gets rainy, but where my school is its usually sunny,' it's going to be annoying having all these questions asked.

'You don't sound like the Australian's do on TV,' duh, that's because they're stereotypes.

'Yeah, that's because no one in Australia is like that,' I think I'm about to explode, luckily that really hot guy came to my rescue.

'Hey, leave them alone, can't you tell they've had a long day?' Yeah I reckon, we didn't have to leave till about 5 pm so they made us go to school! The annoying first years apologised to me and shuffled up the seat, turned around and started talking to some other people next to them. 'Sorry about that, you get that with first years. My names Sirius Black,'

'Anna McKeller,' I replied, and then whispered, 'thanks for saving me!'

Sirius laughed, oh my god he is so hot, 'that's ok, well I gotta go. See ya around; you'll probably be in some of my classes,'

He walked back to his friends and started talking to them again, 'oh my god! You so have to ask him out!' Hayley squealed.

'What? I don't even know him,' I protested.

'That never stopped you before,' Avery said.

'Shut up, no one asked your opinion,' I said to him.

'I wonder if his friend is single,' Matilda said.

'Which one? The fat one that looks like a rat?' Hayley said to her.

'No!' Matilda hit Hayley, 'the other one with dark hair, the Head Boy,'

'Sorry Mat, but by the looks of things he's taken,' I said glancing up the table where he was sitting next to the Head Girl, her head resting on his shoulder and he was stroking her hair.

'Oh, that's not fair!' Matilda glanced sulkily around the hall for another guy, 'oh well because we have classes tomorrow I will be able to meet someone. I know! I'll be some guy's potions partner!'

Me and Hayley rolled our eyes, Matilda is always coming up with ways too meet guys, each more inventive than the rest. Finally when everyone started getting up and moving Mr Pryor came down to us and led us to were our rooms would be.

We went up two flights of stairs and down about a hundred corridors until we came to a painting of fairies, Mr Pryor went up to them and said, 'Sprinkles,' and the painting opened up to reveal a fair sized common room, with tables, chairs, lounges and a fireplace, oh and all our belongings were along the wall, 'boys, your rooms are down that corridor to your left, you can choose your own rooms, there's three to a room, girls same just to your right, my rooms in the middle if you need me at all, boys your bathroom is at the end of your corridor, and same for the girls. Now the rooms may not be as great as the normal students here, and your rooms at All Hallows, but your school fees from this year, half of them are going to Hogwarts to pay for your time here,'

Mr Pryor turned and left and we all grabbed our bags and went to our rooms. Me, Hayley and Matilda went to the second last room, that way we were close to the bathroom but not close enough to hear the showers at five am in the morning when the psychotic people get up. Also you can't smell the toilets.

The beds were singles, but comfy, we had our own wardrobes, plain oak, but that wouldn't matter, we all bought posters and photos with us so they wouldn't be plain.

'I'm going to bed now, too dream about all the hotties here, night,' Hayley said. Me and Matilda said goodnight, talked about Hogwarts for a few minutes before going to sleep.


	2. She Will Be Loved

Disclaimer: should I even bother?

I have only one thing to say… M&Ms ROCK! I'm eating them now.

* * *

I woke up the next morning to Hayley jumping on top of me, 'brekkie time!'

'It's too early, it's only 7.30, wake me up in half an hour,' I rolled over and stuck my head under my pillow.

Hayley yanked it off me, 'come on loser, get in the shower before the hot water goes, you smell,'

'Ok, ok,' I rolled out of the bed, which was very easy because it was only a single, grabbed my towel and shower stuff and went for a shower. They were pretty good, only hard to get the right temperature. When I was done I walked up the hall with my towel around me, Avery, Rory, Harley, and Johnno were just leaving their rooms, 'oh no,' I legged it to my room and locked the door just as they almost caught me, last time I walk out from the shower with nothing but a towel on, ok I lie.

Hayley and Matilda were doing their hair when they started laughing at me and the way I ran in. I chucked my shower stuff on my desk, and then said, 'what?'

They laughed and shook their heads at me and continued getting ready. I dressed quickly then did my hair with this product that makes it get beachy waves in seconds. My mum, she's a hairdresser, in Lusaka St, the magic street, she owns the shop and makes all these potions that work with hair and beauty. So I can be ready for school in like fifteen minutes and look like I've been getting ready for hours.

I shoved a stack of books in my bag and we walked down to the dining hall. We sat at the table we sat at last night and a teacher came over giving us our timetables.

'Oh, terrific, what a way to start the day, double Potions, I hope the teacher here is better than Burrows,' Matilda said. Miss Burrows, our Potions teacher was a complete physco, like most of our teachers were. She dressed like a man in suits and sometimes wore these terrible mauve velvet capes, and she had a reddish brown bowl cut with two large white streaks at the front. She hated teenagers and private schools; personally I think she should just go teach science at some muggle state high school or primary school.

I didn't really care about the teachers though, I could see Avery and co sitting and talking with Sirius and his friends, and they looked down the table at us, and were obviously talking about us, 'they're talking about us,'

Matilda and Hayley looked at them, 'more likely about you, I think that Sirius likes you,' Hayley said.

'You do? Yay! Ok, I need a plan, to give me an excuse to sit next to him,' I said, 'in class,'

'You don't even know if he's in you class though,' Hayley said.

'Who cares, turn up late for potions, and because you won't want to sit on you own you can sit next to him,' Matilda said.

'What if there is no seat next to him?' I asked a pretty straight forward question.

'I'll take care of that,' Matilda said an evil grin forming on her face.

'Great. Hayley what do you have first?' Hayley was in different classes to us because if she couldn't be a professional Quidditch player, she was going to work at Gringotts. So she was taking classes like Arithmancy, DADA, Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes, Charms, and Transfiguration.

'Arithmancy, well I better go, hope your plan works,' she winked as she walked off.

'Well we better go to class; you go to the toilet and take your time,' Matilda said. We got up and I went and asked someone where the bathroom was and Matilda headed towards the dungeons.

This is probably one of the dumbest things I have ever done. I'm just staring at my reflection and fixing my hair, I may as well look my best for Sirius. That is such a hot name, Sirius Black. I pulled out a lipgloss and re-applied it to my lips. I've been here for five minutes, that's probably enough right? Oh well it will do. Now to find the dungeons. That's creepy, dungeons; we just had potions in labs. Although All Hallows was only about a hundred and fifty years old and constantly being renovated there's none of the old building left, except the library and some of the class rooms in that area.

Finally after about fifteen minutes I found the room or dungeon to be exact, 'sorry I'm late, I went to the toilet and then got lost,' the teacher looked at me, and everyone's heads turned to me, I looked around, each bench sat four, the bench Matilda was at had an American guy and two Beauxbatons students (one was a girl the other was a guy) the guys were pretty hot. I saw Sirius's bench, it had only three people at it. It went empty seat, Sirius, cute friend, hot friend. I walked over too his bench and sat down, Matilda smiled at me as I sat down, I wonder what she did, maybe she did nothing at all.

'Sit down, you must be Anna McKeller, your brother over there said you might be late, I'm Professor Slughorn,' he was fat, but jolly fat sort of, like the muggle Christmas icon Santa. Only minus the fluffy white beard and red suit, oh and all the presents.

'Hey Anna,' Sirius said as I sat down.

'Hey,' I replied, 'so what are we doing?'

'Making Untraceable poisons, you can be my partner if you want, I normally go with James and Remus, but we're supposed to be in partners,' he smiled down at me.

I had no idea what to say, so I smiled back, 'so do you play Quidditch?'

'Yeah, I'm a beater,' he replied, 'what do you play?'

'I'm a beater as well. The other beater on the team is Avery, my brother; I think you've met him?' Ok this wasn't so good. Sure we played the same position in Quidditch, but if when we versed Hogwarts I would have to hit him with a bludger.

'Oh, so I guess we'll be versing each other then,' Sirius said.

'Yeah, I guess we will,' great, now we go into the awkward silence of working together and just asking questions like, 'can you pass the knife?' That was followed by the silent pass, although on the plus side there was a nice smile.

There were highlights to the class like the obvious one of being able to sit next to and check out Sirius the whole time (plus his hot friends James and Remus) and when I went up the front to get an ingredient from the cupboard Matilda pulled me over.

'He's checking you out,' she whispered into my ear, I was about to turn my head when she added, 'don't look! Just thought I'd tell you. Oh how come you aren't talking much?'

'I'll tell you at lunch when Hayley's there,' I told her and then walked back to Sirius. I chucked the leaves on the bench, 'so which of you are which? Remus, James or James, Remus?'

'I'm James Potter, and Remus Lupin,' the tall dark haired one said.

'Cool, hey see that chick over there with the long honey coloured hair?' I said pointing at Matilda's back.

'Yeah, the cute one?' James said.

'Prongs, you can't call her that; you've got a girlfriend,' Remus said, 'yeah what about her?'

Ok the bit about the girlfriend was a bit of a throw off, I could still hook her up with Remus I guess, 'she thinks youse are all hot,'

I glanced over at her table she was flirting outrageously with the guys at her table, 'she obviously thinks they're hot to,' Remus said.

'Oh, that's nothing, she flirts with every male ever existed that's around her age, and passes on the looks scale,'

'So, she's a skank?' Remus asked mildly. Well I'm not going to argue with him there…

'Moony! You can't go calling people that when their friends are around!' James said.

'About thinking we're hot,' Sirius said changing the subject, 'I guess you agree with your friend then?' He raised his eyebrows.

Inside my head I'm like, HELL YEAH! But in my mouth acted more politely, 'well we'll just see about that…' leaving a flirtatious smile, the bell went, 'her names Matilda Roberts by the way. See ya!'

I walked over to Matilda and linked arms with her, 'James has a girlfriend, that's the one you like,' I added seeing her face.

'Damn and the other?'

'Remus is single though,'

'Really… but I've found someone I like better,' that's Matilda for you, changes her mind on guys every five seconds, 'he's American, his name is Seth, he's in our year, he plays Keeper, and he's from New York,'

'Wow Tilly, that's amazing,' I said sarcastically, this now meant I was going to get flooded with facts about Seth and New York.

'Yeah, and his brother is on the under 18s American Quidditch team,' she said… see what I mean.

'Wow, you know I really don't care,' I always be blunt with her, it's not like she listens anyway.

'What don't you care about?' Hayley had joined us.

'Don't worry, ok, my news now. Well, when I was in Potions I was Sirius' partner and we were talking and,' I held my breath for the suspense, 'he's the Hogwarts Beater,'

'So?' Hayley said.

'That's what you made me wait half an hour to hear?' Matilda said. I have horrible friends; they obviously don't care about me at all.

'So? So? We'll be versing his team. I'll be directly versing him!' I said. We went outside, and sat in one of the little courtyards.

'It's not that bad really; I mean it's not like your both Seekers or anything,' Hayley said, 'I mean come on, you've only known the guy for a day and your already upset over the fact it won't work out,'

'Your probably right,' as usual, Hayley is always right when it comes to relationships. It's strange when you're an expert at something, but you haven't had much experience yourself in it, oh my god, I'm such a bitch, I did not just think that. 'But oh my god he is so hot!'

'Can we please get on another subject, like for example _my _relationship problems,' Matilda said.

'You don't have any relationship problems, you can get any guy you want,' Hayley said, what can I say, Hayley is _always _right.

'There you go; you just said so yourself, I can get any guy I want,'

Hayley and I just look at her with a, _you can't be serious face, _'and that's a problem?' So Hayley's the one whose always right, Matilda's the one who is perfect but finds flaws that aren't even flaws, and I'm the one who states the obvious, dumb facts. I think it has to do with all the times I've been hit with a bludger/ bludger bat.

'Yes it is a problem,' she replied in a matter of fact way,' you see unlike you two who have all the fun chasing the guy you want, I get them straight away,' me and Hayley glanced at each other and rolled our eyes, Matilda saw this and continued, 'it is a major problem, because I don't get to have fun chasing them and then feeling like such a hero that I've succeed,'

We stare at her dumbly, 'Matilda, has it ever occurred to you that you're psychotic?'

'Anna! You've gotta help me!' Matilda is such a bad whiner.

'Do what; turn you from the hottest girl in our year to Miss Average?'

'Ok, maybe not that far, can you just find hot guy who would never be interested in me?' She has serious problems, I wonder if Hogwarts has a councillor.

'Matilda, I don't think there would be one guy who would pass up going out with you,' unless of course he was some completely twisted freak, like that greasy looking guy who was in Potions up the front. Then it dawned on me… I had the perfect guy for Matilda who wouldn't go out with her. Yeah, you know who, Remus. 'Actually, I think I have someone in mind already…'

'You do? So you'll help me?' Matilda asked eagerly, 'who is it?'

'Oh, I can't tell you yet, I have to suss him out first, see if he's good enough for you,' the truth is I don't want to tell her straight away, she'll probably do something drastic. And I don't want her to get hurt on my behalf.

The bell rang, me and Hayley headed for DADA, and Matilda skipped off to Divination. Matilda just did all the classes she passed as her life long ambition is to be a trophy wife for a famous Quidditch player, that was the main reason she played, apart from the fact it was a natural talent for her, her dad used to be on the Brisbane Basilisks, sothat can all the options open for her.

'I seriously can't believe what she is doing,' Hayley muttered.

'I reckon, she has a serious problem, I'd love to have any guy wanting to go out with me,'

'Who have you got in mind for her?'

'Oh, well it's one of Sirius' friends, the cute one, who's a bit pale,'

'Why him?'

'Because he doesn't like her at all, he called her a skank in potions,'

'Nice, now maybe you can knock some sense into her,'

'Yeah well, this is Matilda we're talking about,'

'Point taken,' Hayley and I lined up in front of the classroom, behind the greasy kid, Hayley leaned over and whispered to me, 'how much would your mum charge to fix his hair?'

'Hayley!' I hit her on the arm, 'you are so mean!'

'I know, but how much?'

'Oh I dunno, erm, how about 50,000 galleons?'

'Who's mean now?'

'My mum,' we giggled, and then got over it.

'Hey, are you Anna McKeller?' It was the red head, who James was going out with.

'Yeah, why?' I replied. Why would she want to know if I'm me? Oh my god, some one's started a rumour about me already! I bet it was Avery! I'm going to kill him!

'Just wondering…' she was about to turn away then as if she couldn't hold it in for much longer she added, 'you know Sirius, the one you sat with in Potions?'

'Yeah…' I can already see where this is going. I should stop jumping to conclusions all the time.

'It's not much, but he just kept talking about you all lunch,' I started going pink. Me? Blush? Anna McKeller?

'Oh, that's nice,' I probably sound like the biggest bitch, 'what's your name by the way?'

'Lily Evans,'

'Cool, well see you around, wait your in my class now, I'm such an idiot,'

Lily laughed, she was so pretty, I could see why James would go out with her.


	3. little things

'Good morning class, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Professor Healy,' she was average height, had a bad attempt at make up, and shoulder length mousy brown hair, 'we are going to be looking at Inferi today, who can tell me what Inferi is?' The greasy haired kids hand shot up into the air straight away, quickly followed by Lily and Remus, 'Snape?'

Hayley snorted, and then whispered to me, 'what kind of name is Snape?'

I laughed, 'I think it's his last name,'

'You two, names,' Professor Healy said pointing at us.

I nudged Hayley in the shoulder, 'I'm Anna McKeller, and this is Hayley Ballard,'

'Well Miss McKeller, and Miss Ballard, kindly share what you have to say with the class,' she glared down at us.

'But I don't have anything to say,' I said back to her.

'If you don't have anything to say then why are you talking and laughing?' Everyone in the class was looking at us; Sirius, James and Remus were stifling laughter. Avery, Johnno and Harley were stifling laughter as well.

'Sir, I mean Miss,' Hayley began, the guys were about to burst, 'it wasn't Anna, it was me, I commented on how funny the guy who needs to wash his hair's name was,'

The guys did start laughing; Professor Healy looked us up and down, 'you can stay back when this is over, Potter, Black, 10 points from Gryffindor!' Sirius and James gaped at her and shot us an evil look, I turned around and stuck my finger up at them, 'now, Snape, what is an Inferi?'

He glared at me and Anna, and then turned around to the front, 'an Inferi is the body of a dead person who is has been placed under a curse to fight, You-Know-Who is thought to use them,'

Professor Healy smiled, which is something that you don't want to see, 'well done, 20 points to Slytherine. Now can anyone tell me the difference between a ghost and an Inferi? Miss Evans,'

'A ghost is the spirit of the dead person, and an Inferi is just the body, it hasn't got a mind of its own,'

'Well, done, 10 points to Gryffindor,' notice the controversy, she has her favourites, and it doesn't include Lily, who is probably way smarter than Snape, 'now take out you books to page, 450 and read the pages on Inferi, write a report on Inferi, what they do, and how they attack you and how to protect yourself, 500 words,'

WHAT? 500 words! That's physically impossible! I have to count 500 words? I groaned, great homework already and I bet it'll be due tomorrow. I opened my book to page 450, and looked at the picture; it looked like one out of a cheap horror movie from like a hundred years ago. When the class was over I left with Lily as Hayley was being given detention, Lily had the same classes as me, she wanted to be an Aurora as well.

'So what's Australia like? Doesn't it have different school years?' Lily asked.

'Yeah it's pretty cool. The schooling starts at the beginning of February and finishes at the beginning of December, because the schooling is different, we changed the sixth and seventh year's curriculum, so we could fit it in with yours, so we wouldn't get behind, and then when we leave it'll be just in time for our N.E.W.Ts when we get back. See this is your first semester, and my second semester,' I explained.

'Hmm, that's funny,' Tamara said.

'Not really, your schooling seems funny to me,' I replied. I heard someone running up behind me.

'Thanks for waiting Anna,' Hayley panted.

'Welcome,' I grinned back at her, 'so what happened?'

'Saturday evening, mopping the entrance hall after everyone has passed through after the Hogsmead trip,'

'Ha, sucks to be you,' I said to her, 'so what's the Transfiguration teacher like?'

'Professor McGonagall, she's tough, but fair, a good teacher, she's head of Gryffindor house,' Lily said.

'She is so not fair! I hate her!' Tamara said.

'You only say that because she gave you two weeks worth of detention after she caught you and that Slytherine wagging class last year. They were in this room they found, and well, you don't really want to know what was happening,' Lily said smugly grinning at Tamara.

'They don't need to know either,' Tamara said as she hit Lily on the arm.

'Ladies, ladies, please no violence,' James said walking over; he put hi arms around Lily and kissed her gently on the cheek, 'So Ballard, what did Healy do to you?'

'Detention for Saturday evening, mopping the entrance hall after everyone comes back from Hogsmead,' she replied.

'What's Hogsmead?' Avery asked.

'It's the town, just over there, we get to go on trips down there on the weekends, seventh years get to go more often than younger years though,' Remus said.

Professor McGonagall arrived and we entered the class room, I sat down between Hayley and Avery and class began, 'Animagus, you all know what an Animagus is… yes?'

A Beauxbaton's girl raised her hand, and spoke in a thick accent, 'my fazer iz an Animaguz,'

'Really? What is his name?' McGonagall asked.

'Philippe Lana, 'e turnz intoo a wolf,' she replied, well, I think myGrandma is an Animagus because one second she is a nice old lady and then BAM! She's a horrible old witch (literally), that's a control freak.

'I think I've met him once. Now does anybody know anyone who is an Animagus?' I have the feeling that this lesson isn't going anywhere. Should I raise my hand? Nah, Avery can do it. Sirius's hand shot into the air, 'yes Mr Black?'

'You Miss,' a few people laughed, McGonagall doesn't seem that bad...

'For those who aren't Hogwarts students, yes I am an Animagus,' McGonagall disappeared and in her place was a tabby cat with the same markings around her eyes as McGonagall's glasses.

'Aww, that's so cute!' Hayley crooned, she ran up to pat her, screaming when McGonagall turned back right in front of her. Hayley ran back to her seat as the class burst into laughter.

'As you know, Animagi is an extremely difficult threat, and that is why we will be spending the term studying it and for those who wish to attempt it,' oh my god, oh my god. I'm gonna be an Animagi! 'For homework I want a two page report on the characteristics of Animagi,'

'Two pages?' I mouthed to Hayley; I like the look of that 500 word report for DADA now. I guess Hogwarts was better for us academically.

The bell rang, 'second break, thank god,' Hayley said. We grabbed our books and ran for the dining hall, we were starving.

'Hey Anna, Hayley, we have our first practice, 4 o'clock,' Rory said, 'tell Matilda, 'kay?'

'Righteo then, see ya around,' Hayley said.

'Thank god, something to look forward to. Is it just me or is this school way to smart for us?' I asked Hayley.

'No, it's definitely no just you,' Hayley replied.

'At least when we go home to do our N.E.W.Ts we'll ace the tests and be top in our class,' I said hopefully, you can always dream.

'Or we'll fail because we're not as smart as everyone here and we won't learn anything…' she has to throw the bad side out at everything.

'Hey Tilly, Quidditch practice, 4 o'clock,' o said.

'Okay, oh my god!' This was going to be interesting, 'guess what I just saw!'

'What?' I said in my dullest voice.

'There was a girl with pink hair!' I don't believe it, she was getting worked up over that? 'And anyway, Anna do you think that you could get your mum to send you some pink hair dye and dye it pink for me?'

Matilda want's to dye her hair pink? 'Erm, why do you want to dye it pink?'

'Because, it looks so cool! And I want pink hair!'

'Why don't you sleep on that idea and I'll write to my mum, and then when your sure you want pink hair we'll dye it pink,' I feel like I'm talking to a three year old.

I noticed that a small girl with pink hair in two little ponytails sticking off the side of her head because they were so short, walked into the hall, 'oh my god! There she is!'

'Matilda don't point you'll scare her,' Hayley said, I snorted at that; Matilda couldn't scare anyone if she tried. I watched her, she went over to talk to Sirius, I wonder how he knows her?

'I know, but I just _love _her hair,' Matilda looked dreamy.

'Your pathetic, why don't you just go ask her about her hair?' Hayley and I always give her dumb ideas, because it's funny when she goes and attempts them.

'Okay,' Matilda dropped her fork which she had been using to eat her wedges, and jumped up from her seat and walked off, me and Hayley were sniggering, 'hey, I saw you before, and like, I love your hair… what sort of dye do you use because I'm thinking of dying my hair that colour,'

'Oh really? You like it? My mum hates it… but I don't dye it, I'm Metamorphous so I change it whenever I like, see,' she scrunched up her face and then hair changed to a bright blue.

'Oh my god! That is so cool! What's your name?' Matilda asked, she is such a loser.

'Tonks, I'm in first year, you?'

'Cool name, I'm Matilda Roberts, I'm in seventh year and from All Hallows,'

'It's actually Nymphadora Tonks,' Sirius said, 'she's my cousin. Matilda, I think your friends are laughing at you,'

'Oh they always laugh at me… I guess I'm just really amusing,' she is so dumb for someone who has honey brown hair, close to blonde I guess.

'Right… well could you give this letter to Anna?' Sirius asked holding out a folded piece of parchment.

'Sure, by the way you don't happen to know any guys that are hot but would never go out with me?' I saw the paper, I saw Matilda take it for me, I heard her say she was looking for a guy who would never go out with her, I jumped up, I think Hayley heard her too.

'Okay Tilly, that's enough, lets go now, leave Sirius alone now,' I said dragging her off, Hayley hooked her arm around her steering her away, 'sorry about that, the best thing to do usually is ignore her,'

'I'll remember that, see ya around Anna,' Sirius said, he walked off.

'Anna, Sirius asked me to give you this,' she passed me the letter, 'so anyway, the little girl, she's a Metamorphous so she didn't dye it, and she made it go bright blue in front of me! I think I want blue and pink streaks now…' I rolled my eyes at Hayley as Matilda kept babbling, 'do you think your mum would send you pink and blue dye?'

'Erm, sure…' we went into our little sitting room as we had the last period off I opened Sirius' letter.

_Anna,_

_I know we've only known each other for a day, but meet me outside at four o'clock this afternoon down near the lake._

_Sirius_

Great letter, guys suck at writing letters, it kind of sucks though, I mean could have been alone with Sirius for god knows how long. So I wrote this back:

_Sirius,_

_I'm sorry, but I can't meet you then, Quidditch practice, I think you'd understand, maybe we could meet tomorrow afternoon?_

_Anna_

I know it's just as bad as his, he deserves. Now, how to give him the letter, I looked around, Avery just came in, 'Avery! Come here, do you have any classes this afternoon?'

'No, but I'm going down to the lake with Johnno, Harley, Rory and James and all his friends,' so much for 'alone time'.

'Here, well can you give this to Sirius?' Please don't read it, please don't read it.

'Sending love notes are we? Jeez Anna, I never thought you were so sentimental about a guy you've only known for what? 20, 30 hours?'

'For your information, if it's any of your business he invited me down to the lake at four, but I couldn't go because of practice so the note is just saying I can't go, so can you give it to him or not?' I saw his face, 'read it if you don't believe me,'

'That won't be necessary, I just ate,'

'Ha ha, now go!'

'What are you? My mother? Oh wait; mum has better hair and a better social life than you,' that got him a hard whack around the head, but he does have a point, our mum is one of those witches who fell for a muggle, got married had a kid, or in our case two, then the husband found out she was a witch left her, and now she's gorgeous for a 35 year old, and has the hottest boyfriend in the magical world, her latest boyfriend, Rhett Chapman, the Beater for the Brisbane Basilisks, our favourite team, gets us free tickets in that special box thingy, and all the girls in my year are so jealous of my mum.

Avery chucked his books in his room and then left to the lake, after changing into his sport uniform, blue cotton pants and white cotton top with blue down the sides, simple and comfy.

'Argh, I hate brothers, they are so annoying,' I said flopping down onto a couch.

'I'd love to have a brother that hot,' Matilda said.

Hayley and I stared at her in horror, only managing to make out two words, 'eww,' and, 'inbred,'

'Oh, not like that, jeez what do you take me for? A Mount Morgan resident? No, just the fact that he'd have all his hot friends and well…'

I can't believe she called my brother hot, 'I can't believe you called Avery hot!'

'He is though; I mean you've got to admit it…'

'She does have a point,' Hayley began, I don't believe it, my friends have deserted me, 'I mean sure, it's perfectly natural you don't think he's hot…'

'It'd be unnatural if I did… I think I need a Panadol… do you think the sick bay would have Panadol? Or some shock relief potion…'

Now it was their turn to roll their eyes, 'Anna, lets go for a walk,' Hayley said.

'Where? Not the lake, because I will never trust you near Avery again,'

'No, not the lake, I was actually thinking of the library…'

'Since when did you use a library?'

'Since we've had all this homework so grab your bag and go,'

I feel like I'm at home all over again, 'yes mum,' the Hogwarts library is pretty big, it made All Hallows look pretty scungy, and that was the biggest library I'd ever been in.

I looked over at my diary, I think it's time to start that two page essay…

I walked out to the Quidditch pitch in my sport uniform, the rest of the team and reserves where there. First came our stretches, I'm pretty flexible, comes from all the Gymnastics I did before I started All Hallows. Second just a few exercises around the pitch on our brooms, then we were sorted into two even teams, too play a short game, and then of course working on our positions, mine being the funnest; getting to aim a bludger at Avery's fat head for half an hour, then when we were done we packed up just as the American's came onto the pitch for the training time.

'Anna!' It was Avery.

'Not talking to you,' ha ha, he has no idea why I'm not talking to him, neither do I, I just don't feel like talking to him, I walked into the entrance hall.

'Why not? I have something to tell you, it's important,'

'I don't care, I need a shower,' I walked through the painting/door to our dorm thing. I walked into my room and got my shower things and walked into the showers.

'Ahh, that's good,' I prefer these showers to the changing room ones, they're actually private here, you'd never guess. I walked outside the shower with the towel around me; the mirrors were all fogged up. I got to my room to find that I had no clean clothes; I couldn't borrow Hayley's clothes because her cupboard was locked, and Matilda's were way too small for me. I tiptoed up the corridor, having no idea why, and poked my head around the door into the common room, Matilda and Hayley were on their way to dinner.

'Haylz, wait,' they opened the painting, 'Hayley,' I made a run for it, they walked out the portrait, I still had time, 'Hayley, wait up!' I reached the door just as they shut it, I opened it, and stepped out into the hall, 'Hayley,' I ran up and pushed her, 'oi, you deaf or something?'

'Partially, why…' I think she was going to ask 'why you ask?' but instead she asked, 'why are you wearing just a towel?'

'Because I have no clean clothes, and your cupboard was loc…' I jumped behind Hayley and screamed.

'Why are you just wearing a towel?' Not only was it Avery, Harley, Rory and Johnno, but James, Remus, Peter and SIRIUS!

'That is none of your business,' I said with my nose up.

'Sorry, it's just not everyday you see someone wandering the halls of the school in a towel,' Sirius said laughing, I had the urge to hit him, but that would risk the minute chance we had of a relationship.

'Oh, not if you go to All Hallows, Anna's always in a towel there, so is Matilda, and Hayley if you lucky,' I had no problem with hitting Avery, the only problem was keeping my towel up.

I went bright red and grabbed my towel and legged it for the door, shouted the password, leapt in followed closely by Matilda and Hayley, I could just hear Remus say, 'I told you the short one was a skank…' I didn't care though, like I said before, it's partially true, even though she wants to change but can't help herself.

I ran into my room mortified and hid under my blankets as Hayley brought out her baggiest clothes possible too cover every inch of me, 'what's the difference, they've seen everything now,' I was close to a sob, but the last time I cried was when I found out me and Avery wouldn't be visiting dad anymore, that was just before we started at All Hallows and started using magic.


	4. Too Much to Ask

Ok, first of all, the chapter four I posted a few days ago wasn't the right one! My brother (my twin who Avery is based on) hacked into my computer and has messed up some of my chapters that I have already written, the ending with the letter and everything wasn't supposed to happen till near the end which I wrote before I forgot it, so ignore that last chapter here's the real one. And also they weren't supposed to verse Hogwarts for another few weeks (in the story). Stupid brothers…

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I don't think I've been more embarrassed in my life, oh except that time me and Hayley were broke and we put on a talent contest to get some money to buy presents and food for the party we held for Matilda. Bad memories. I mean it's not like I'm bad at performing, that I'm really good at, dad used to get me and Avery into as many muggle activities as possible, before I started at All Hallows I had done piano, guitar, ballet, netball, basketball, hockey, drama lessons, little athletics, and me and Avery had both gone to a muggle primary school where we were forced to do choir until we got kicked out because we never turned up to lessons.

'Anna, are you coming to dinner already? I'm starving!' Hayley said. I was wearing her track pants and a large jumper.

'Can you bring me some food back, I don't think I'm quite ready to face everyone in that hall yet, I bet words got around by now, knowing Avery,' I was curled up on my bed, hugging my large Hello Kitty. Matilda was on the end of my bed and Hayley was leaning over me.

'Anna, you have to face them some time, I mean you can't hide forever, they'll think your chicken if you don't turn up,' Hayley replied, she's right, I mean I am the unbeatable Anna McKeller…

'Your right, but I get to hit the first person to do something,' I said do because they might not necessarily say anything. I got up off my bed, put my thongs on and walked out in front of them.

We arrived at the hall and the second I walked in I turned around and walked out, 'I can't do this!'

Hayley grabbed my shoulders and spun me around, she and Matilda pushed me into the door and marched me straight to the Gryffindor table and forced me to sit down next to Sirius, 'I hate you Hayley,'

'That's nice now eat,' Hayley sat down next to me and Matilda sat opposite us, next to Remus.

'Hi Remus,' she said brightly, I had mentioned to her earlier that I thought he might be the kind of guy she was looking for.

'Erm, hello,' and he turned around and continued talking to Johnno. Poor girl, rejected.

'Anna, nice to see you, wearing, erm, clothes,' Sirius said reddening. Ha, so guys can blush.

'Look, Padfoot's blushing!' James said. Sirius punched him in the arm.

'Anna, why bother covering up with all of Hayley's clothes? I mean it's not like we haven't seen anything…ANNA!' That's what you get for commenting on my nakedness, a big broken bleeding nose. Hahaha.

'Avery has it ever crossed your mind that I have at least a million copies of that picture with you in the pink fairy tutu from when we did ballet?' Oh revenge is sweet.

'WHAT! Where did you get those from? I thought I burnt them all!' He went bright red.

'Yeah, you forgot that I had a copy in my photo album, I never really understood why dad put one in there, but now I know,'

'Anna, hand it over,'

'I don't have it here with me,'

'Well run up to your room and get it,'

'Or not,'

'Anna if you don't give it to me, I'll, I'll,'

'Stutter?'

'I'll pull out those pictures from when you were in a pink fairy tutu,'

'Oh!' I gasped, 'you wouldn't!'

'Oh I would, as long as you give memy fairy photo,'

He wasn't going to win this early, I can make up a double copy in a matter of seconds, 'fine,' I'm such a great actress.

He had a look of intelligence, he is such a dumbass, I obviously wasn't the only one who realised that he was that dumb, Sirius sniggered behind his cup forcing his drink to splash up on his face.

I hadn't realised how quick this all passed by because the next thing I knew was Mr Pryor had me scrubbing the windows in the astronomy tower, which as you may have guessed had a lot of windows that were high up and I kept getting soap in my eyes.

'What right does it give him to give me detention in another school, and get involved in a family dispute? I mean come on…' I said angrily as I worked on Potions assignment in my room to escape everyone in our little common room.

'I reckon, that was so uncalled for,' Hayley said agreeing.

'Well, not really, because you have to punish for hitting people even if they are your sibling,' Matilda said.

'Comes from someone who's an only child,' I muttered. Matilda was so lucky.

A week and a half later I was beginning to get used to the fact that Hogwarts wasn't perfect, what I mean is, it doesn't have lockers for our books and stuff, it's not very easy to find your way around and since the walls, doors and stairs seem to have minds of their own, and then their was Peeves, the resident poltergeist, he was bobbing around in the air singing a song about how I dropped my towel for over a week, I mean can't he get over it?

'The games schedule is up now, we play next Sunday, against Beauxbatons,' Harley said to me in Charms.

'Great,' I had wanted to know when I would have the opportunity to thrash Sirius, but I guess I can't have everything.

'So when do we verse Hogwarts?'

'Erm, can't quite remember, but it's not for a few more weeks I think,'

Damn, 'Ok, cool, hey you going to Hogsmead this weekend after the first game?'

'Yeah, I wanna check out the Shrieking Shack, it's the most haunted building in Britain,'

'Right…so it outclasses this place?'

'Well, maybe not quite, but you know it's supposed to have the rowdiest ghosts ever…'

'You're a loser, jokes. Personally my heart is set on Honeydukes, but you know me,'

'Don't we all,' I hate him sometimes.

Hogsmead was so good. Me, Hayley and Matilda got up at about 8am, very early for a Saturday that doesn't have us playing Quidditch, I was wearing (if anyone really cares) my black supa tubes, with a light blue singlet and an off the shoulder jumper that was turquoise and grey stripped, Hayley wore black supa tubes as well, with a green shirt with sequins around the edges, and Matilda, she wore a short denim skirt with black three quarter tights, a light pink singlet and a pink and silver off the shoulder jumper like mine only about a 1000 times smaller.

At breakfast you could feel the tension in the air, it was Haamid verse Durmstrang. I personally was going for Haamid because they're Quidditch uniform was bright and colourful. We walked out to the Quidditch pitch and found some seats in the Gryffindor area and sat down right up the front.

'Who you going for?' Matilda asked.

'Umm, Haamid because I like their uniform and Africa is the closest country to Australia in the comp,'

'I'm going for Haamid too, because see that tall dark one?' Matilda is so dense, she doesn't seem to realise that **_ALL _**the players are tall and dark.

'That doesn't really help Tilly,' Hayley said.

'Ok, his name is Jamal, he's in our year, and he plays Keeper,' will Matilda ever find someone she doesn't get over in less than one hour?

'Nah I reckon Durmstrang'll win,' I heard Sirius say to James.

'Why? The Haamid's are way cooler,' James replied.

'Because Durmstrang have Vladmir Krum, his dad is on the Bulgarian team, Seeker he plays,' Sirius said in his all knowledgeable voice.

From that moment on Matilda was going for Durmstrang because Vladmir was extremely hot and his dad was a professional Quidditch player.

'Durmstrang suck,' I said in a babyish voice.

'Wanna bet?'

'Sure,'

'Ok then, you going to Hogsmead this afternoon?'

'Yeah,'

'Ok then, Haamid win I buy you a drink, Haamid lose, you give me a kiss,'

'Righteo then, you're on,' we shook on that. He was going to regret loosing that kiss, but then so was I, go Durmstrang!

'Ah, my new best friend we can go for Haamid together,' James said sitting down next to me, then moving over for Lily sit in between us.

Sirius put on a hurt face, 'so I'm just rejected. Like that.'

'Yup,'

'I'm upset, deeply wounded,'

'Good,' Sirius punched him in the arm as he sat down, 'hey Anna,

'Yeah…'

'I was thinking,' but I never got to hear what he was thinking because the game began and we were too interested in Quidditch.

It was a great game, went for about an hour and a half, the final score being 360- 120 to Haamid, I was so happy Sirius had lost 20 galleons but I must admit I was a tiny bit disappointed about Durmstrang loosing.

'Right, that's one drink,' I said to Sirius after high-fiving James.

'Aww, sure you don't want change your bet? Ok ok,' he said seeing my face, 'meet me at the Three Broomsticks at 1pm,'

'Ok, see ya then,'

Hayley, Matilda and I walked down to Hogsmead, took about twenty minutes, it was a nice walk, apart from the fact that it was slightly drizzly, and that I tripped on my own feet numerous times and turned around to hear a group of fourth year girls laughing at me, so I turned around and started shouting at them and then they ran off crying…

'Where are we going first?' Hayley asked.

'Honeydukes!' I shouted.

'I second that!' Matilda said.

'Right, Honeydukes it is then,' Hayley said and we walked down the street to where we thought it possibly was.

After about twenty minutes of wandering aimlessly all over the place, once walking into some old witch's backyard, that set a miniature three-headed dog on us, by miniature I mean not ginormous, it was about the size of a Doberman, we found Honeydukes and went on a spending spree there seeing there were no worthwhile clothing stores there, we rarely wore wizard robes, preferring muggle clothes which where a lot more practical.

'C'mon,' I said after a bite into a raspberry riot, a raspberry twist that when you ate it started jumping around and sparking in your stomach, 'lets go to the Three Broomsticks, I so should not have bought those raspberry riots, I need a drink, it's 12.45 now,'

We arrived at the Three Broomsticks and found a table, Matilda and Hayley bought a drink and then Sirius arrived, 'come on, we'll sit over here,' I got up, Hayley winked at me and Matilda gave me a cheeky smile which was soon switched to a sweet smile when Remus and Peter joined them at their table. I raised my eyebrows when I saw that.

'You want a butterbeer?' He asked.

'Yeah, thanks,'

'Two butterbeer's please,' he said to the bar maid, 'you sure you don't want to change your winning prize to a kiss?'

No I thought, but then being the cheapskate I was I let him buy me a drink, there were plenty of times to get a kiss later, 'yes,'

'Fine, come on, over here,' he took the drinks, I offered to take one but he just said, 'its all part of the prize,'

'Right…' I replied dragging it out, we sat down in one of the back tables.

'So, how you liking it here?'

'Well, I guess it's alright, it has its ups and downs, a down being it's totally confusing and there are no lockers,'

'And an up?' He asked taking a drink.

I smiled mischievously, 'lots of things… like the guys,'

'Really…' he looked at me, I looked at him, and we leaned in closer… we broke apart when we heard wolf whistling and clapping, Sirius gave James the finger, 'you wanna go somewhere else? Away from all those losers over there?'

I hope he was talking about James and his friends, not my friends, then I realised he was joking, 'okay,' I smiled.

We walked hand in hand for a bit around the village, it was really cute; I have never been to a village before can you believe, but then they don't have any villages in Australia…ah it felt so comfy, so right holding his hand, does that sound corny or what? But it's true; you know that warm fuzzy feeling? Well if you do then that's how I feel, but then if you don't its so nice, it's like you feel all warm inside, like when you drink a beautifully made hot chocolate or coffee on a cold day, when your all rugged up… I'm hopeless aren't I?

'You look really nice today,' Sirius said.

'Thanks, you look good too,' urgh I'm such an idiot!

He smiled at me, a smile that made me go weak at the knees, I smiled back.

'So what was it like?' Hayley asked sitting on the end of my bed.

'What?' I said going pink.

'The kiss you loser!' Hayley said throwing a reddish, purpley Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean at my head.

'Mmm, radish,' I said sarcastically after eating it, 'are there any toffee ones?'

'Don't change the subject, now is Sirius Black a good kisser or not?' Hayley asked; I smiled at her, 'oh! I knew it!'

'Then why did you ask?' I asked.

'I dunno, now, what happened on your walk?'

'We walked…'

'And? Come on that can't be all?'

'We held hands that's all, and I had that warm fuzzy feeling,' I sighed remembering.

'Oi, Earth to Anna, wake up out of dreamland, now anything else happen?'

'Nothing that I haven't done before,'

'That could be anything!' Hayley whined.

'Bitch!' I threw a chocolate frog her head.

'Hey, at least it's not Matilda were talking about…'

'Speaking of Matilda, where is she?'

'I dunno, she went off with a Serefina guy, one who she sits next to in Potions?'

'Oh, that'd be Seth from New York, seriously, if she wants to go out with Remus, she should stop hooking up with other guys,'

'She only wants to go out with him so she can prove she can get any guy she wants, her and your cousin Laurie, they'd go mental here,' Laurie was one of my cousins, she was a triplet, her, Jazz (short for Jasmine) and Michael, Laurie and Matilda were best friends.

'I dunno but, she seemed sincere that she wanted someone she could chase…' I said, Hayley gave me 'that look', 'ok fine, we'll talk to her and tell her if she ever wants to get Remus she should stop hooking up with a million different guys a day,'

'Well, maybe not a million, I don't think there's that many guys in England, it's a small country,' Hayley said, 'I mean it can fit into New South Wales like eight times,'

'That's true, but it has like three times more people than Australia,' I replied, this is one of those conversations, where I feel like I'm an almighty brain.

'Really! Wow, that's so not interesting,' Hayley just burst my bubble…

Matilda walked through the door, her jumper slightly askew, her strapless bra showing, 'Tilly where have you been?' She was about to open her mouth when I decided I didn't really want to know, 'actually don't answer that,'

'Tilly, I though you wanted to go out with Remus?' Hayley said.

'Yeah, but you know, nothings happening, and Seth was there, so…' Matilda trailed off.

'Matilda, how do you think you're ever going to chase a guy and then get that rewarding feeling when you finally get him?' Hayley asked.

'I dunno,' Matilda said with her mouth closed shrugging her shoulders, 'well I don't think he likes me very much anyway,'

'Yeah, that's why you _chase_ him,' I said.

'Well, I'll see how I feel tomorrow, and then I'll think about chasing him, it's just so much easier when all there's all these guys I don't need to chase,' she said.

'Yeah, but you don't really like them, they're just hot,' Hayley said.

'True, but that doesn't matter,' me and Hayley rolled our eyes, this was an argument we would never win.

* * *

Now wasn't that a better ending to my chapter? Stupid Corey, I will personally rip his head off. I found out it was screwed up, because my younger sister is kind of like my editor and she was totally confused and asked me about the letter and I was like, COREY I'M GONNA KILL YOU, YOU… I'll leave the rest to your imagination, now review while I go kill my twin brother who I swear I'm not related to him, I swear… 


	5. Beside the Lake and Quidditch

I see that you have returned to reading and that you were brave enough to continue reading after my brother's tampering. The same brother of mine who was recently found floating down the Brisbane River with an arrow in his back- just joking but he does have a few bruises. Hope you enjoy it, don't forget to review.

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'WAKE UP!' Someone was yelling in my ear, it was still dark in my room, waaaaay to early.

'No, too early, need sleep,' I replied not bothering to look up but I shoved my pillow over my head.

'ANNA! GET UP! QUIDDITCH TODAY!'

I bolted upright, and checked my watch, one am, I looked over to see who had woken me up, Avery, ooh he is so dead after Quidditch, I decided just to jinx him with a little spell I found a few years ago and kept to myself, 'marmamusa,' I muttered when he turned his back smirking, he was going to have a sore nose tomorrow after having to use all those tissues to stop his nose from running. Mwahahahaha.

I fell instantly back to sleep dreaming about myself and Sirius pegging Bludgers at Avery, 'Anna,' I'm just going to ignore him, 'Anna,' go away, 'Anna for god's sake get up!' Hayley said, I didn't move, she performed a little spell that squirted freezing cold water on my back.

'Ok, ok, I'm up, thought you were Avery again,' I said jumping out of bed and putting my slippers on.

'Avery again?' Hayley asked amused.

'Oh, didn't you hear him last night? He was yelling at me to get up at like one in the morning,'

'I can usually hear anything when I sleep, like Matilda's snoring, or you talking in your sleep, but I didn't hear anything last night,'

'I bet he used a silencing charm or something, I never knew he was that smart… oh my god, oh my god, we have our Quidditch game, oh my god, oh my god,' I can't believe it, two weeks already, oh my god.

'Whoa, Anna calm down,' Matilda said, 'we're only versing Beauxbatons, not… oh my god Laurent is on Beauxbatons!'

I rolled my eyes, 'come on, Harley will get reallyannoyed if we're late,' we changed into our Quidditch Robes, which were actual robes, blue, purple, white and silver. I got my Nimbus 1987, the latest model and we walked down to breakfast.

I sat down next to Hayley, from our seats we could see the Beauxbaton's and each team where exchanging glares, 'It's gonna be hard too play, our robes are almost the same,' Hayley said.

'I know, but they don't have purple on theirs, so it should be relatively safe,' Johnno said.

'Hey Anna!' James came over and sat next to me, 'hows Sirius- I mean the nerves, glad I don't have my game till next week,' I hit him twice, one for the Sirius comment and one for the nerves thing, 'ooh touchy, well good luck, have you seen Lily?'

'Erm…' I began, I think I saw her before, when we past the library, 'I think I saw her in the library,'

'That figures, well I'll stay here, you seen Sirius at all?' James talks way too much for a guy.

'Erm, oh he's coming through the doors now,' I said quickly.

'Oi Padfoot! I found her! I told you she'd be eating breakfast!' James yelled out across the hall, several people from other tables turned to look, then realising it wasn't that interesting turned back to their food.

Sirius ran up to the table and jumped onto the seat between me and James, I looked over at Matilda, she smirked, I gave her the finger, and turned to talk to Sirius, 'hey Sirius how are you?'

'I'm good, you?' He replied smiling, ah I don't think this is probably the best thing to be doing right before a game, lucky I wasn't standing up.

'Oh terrific, nerves and all,' I said sarcastically, I shoved a spoonful of porridge in my mouth, 'is there any Nutella here?' (A/N: I don't know if they had Nutella then, but they probably had another sort of chocolate spread).

'Anna, why do you need Nutella for porridge?' Hayley asked sceptically.

'I don't, I need it for toast,' I replied.

'Here,' Sirius handed me a jar, I got a large scoop and spread it thickly on my toast, 'jeez, just a tad hungry?'

'No, Anna is _always_ hungry, I thought knowing her for two weeks you could have figured that out?' Hayley said.

'I guess not, hey, come for a walk?' Sirius asked me.

'Ok, but it can't be long,' I said.

'Oi, meet us at the change rooms at nine, ok?' Harley said.

'Righteo,' I replied getting up, 'Hayley can you take my broom for me?'

'Sure,' she said smirking.

Me and Sirius walked out of the hall and down towards the lake, I suddenly remembered the note, 'oh I completely forgot, you know when you gave me that note to meet you down here? What was that all about?'

'Oh,' he went slightly pink, 'well I was, erm, going to ask you out, but of course you had Quidditch practice,'

'Oh,' I could feel my cheeks turning pink too, he was so sweet! It takes a lot to get me to blush. Except the tiny incident last week, which hopefully Sirius had forgotten, but I doubt it, it takes a lot to forget something like that, just in the course of a day the whole school, plus all the other schools found out.

'So, erm, seeing that we're here now, um, do you wanna go out with me?'

'You have no idea how long I've waited for you to ask that,' I said pulling him in close to me, I put my arms around his neck and kissed him lightly on the mouth, he returned the kiss, a lot more strongly, we stood there with our arms around each other for a brief moment which I never wanted to finish, and hopefully he felt the same way too. Mmm, he smells good, it's not very often guys smell good- moving on now…

We sat down by the lake and talked about our lives, 'well, I've been living with James for a couple of years now, I ran away, my parents sort of disowned me, because, well, they're dark wizards, and well, I'm not, they love my younger brother Regulus, I bet he's just signed up to be a Death Eater, he's a Slytherin, like all my family, except me,' he told me.

'That's horrible!' I said shocked.

'That's the life of the Black's, you might have seen Regulus around, he's in sixth year, black hair, this freakish look to him,' I laughed uncertainly, 'so come on tell me about your family,'

My family seems perfect compared to his, 'well, we live in Brisbane, that's in Queensland, and my dad, he's a muggle, he didn't know my mum was a witch until after they were married and mum was pregnant, he divorced her, and before we started at All Hallows, he made me and Avery do all these muggle things, like ballet, well Avery didn't do ballet, he did tap, and we did singing lessons, drama classes, had to go in every school production and we had to go in the choir, and do music lessons in instruments, and we did all these sports like swimming, soccer (Avery when he was younger), netball (me when I was younger), basketball, touch football (both when we were older) and we went to muggle primary school, he made us go to this Grammar School, full of all these stuck up snobby kids who had really wealthy parents,' I laughed, 'me and Avery were sort of loners then, everyone's parents told them to stay away from us, 'those McKeller kids are trouble, strange things happen around them, their mother is just as strange too, their father is lovely man though, don't know what went wrong with the kids,' they would say, one time I got so angry at my grade six teacher that I started yelling at her and my hair changed colour to blue, I got sent home because they thought I dyed it with a dye that changes colour with heat or something,'

Sirius laughed, 'well you seemed to have a good life, except for your dad leaving, and you and Avery having no friends,'

'Well actually we did have one friend, Jordana Davies, she was muggle born, she ended up coming to All Hallows, I remember the first thing she did when she got her letter, she called me and asked me about everything I knew about it, I was so surprised she knew about my family and everything, she's now my cousin's best friend.

'And my mum, she's a hairdresser for the magical world, she's the most popular one in Australia, and she's really pretty for someone who's thirty-five, she gets all these really hot boyfriends, her current one is Rhett Chapman, he's the Beater for the Brisbane Basilisks', I really hope she marries him, that would be so cool,'

'Well, look who has the coolest family ever,' Sirius said teasingly.

I punched him in the arm, 'what time is it?'

'Erm, quarter to nine, we better get you to your game,' Sirius jumped up and extended his arm to help me up, which I graciously took.

We walked up to the Quidditch Pitch and over to our side of the field where the change rooms where, 'argh, this is so freaky, I feel so sorry for Durmstrang and Haamid yesterday, opening match,'

'Don't worry, you'll be great, good luck,' Sirius said, he kissed me on the cheek and then ran off up to the grandstand to find James and Remus.

As soon as I got in I sat down between Hayley and Rory, 'ok now, you know what to do, we're the best team there is out there, we can beat Beauxbatons easily, now lets go win,' Harley said. He must have been nervous because that was the crummiest speech he had ever said in his entire life of Quidditch before game talks, 'if we win we can have a party ok? Good motive? Lets go,' that speech was slightly better and put a smile on our faces.

A loud voice erupted over the pitch, 'welcome everyone to the second game of the Quidditch School Championships, today we have Beauxbatons from just across the English Channel, and from all the way in the Southern Hemisphere, I give you All Hallows!' A blonde guy from Hogwarts, who I recognised from one of my classes, was doing the commentary.

'On the Beauxbatons team we have Captain Pierre Comeau, he's the Seeker, then there's Laurent Massif, Keeper, Chasers Sebastian Desrosiers, Darci Lefebvre and Christof Clavel, the two Beaters are Jaime Marcels and Lamond Wole. The All Hallows team consists of Captain Harley Johnson, Chaser, the other two Chasers are Jonathon Quinn and Hayley Ballard, the Beaters are Anna McKeller and Avery McKeller, they wouldn't be twins by any chance would they? And moving on is the Seeker, Matilda Roberts,'

We all lined up on the ground facing each other, the ref walked over, 'Captains shake hands,' Harley being a lot taller than Pierre looked down at him and shook his hand, although Harley is a lot taller than most people, and Pierre was slightly on the short side, 'teams mount your brooms,' we all hopped onto our brooms and flew up into the sky, the six Chasers remaining lower.

'The teams take their positions,' this guy was going to be annoying, the ref released the Bludgers and the Snitch, I gripped my bat tightly, the ref threw the Quaffle into the air, 'the Quaffle is released and the game begins! Ballard takes the Quaffle, passes it too Johnson, to Quinn, to Johnson, back to Quinn, to Ballard and she scores! 10-0 to All Hallows!'

I cheered and flew after a Bludger; I hit it in the direction of the Keeper, Laurent, I had decided earlier on not to listen to a word the commentator makes because it just puts you off your guard.

I saw Harley score another goal for us, I was unaware of the score at this time but I knew Beauxbatons had scored a few, and we had scored a bit more than them though, because naturally we were better players… I was pulled out of line of thought as a Bludger flew past my ear, I aimed again at Laurent.

'And McKeller- the girl- has managed to dislodge Massif from his broom, Quinn scores again, the score being 110-70 to All Hallows, I have to say I don't think I've seen a better played game of Quidditch in my life, the All Hallows team is well formed, I think it has something to do with the vast Australian Outback which is ideal for Quidditch playing because of it's remoteness and isolation, the next Quidditch World Cup is going to be played there I believe, the Australia verse Britain, that should be a worthwhile game to go see,'

'Ethan Shaw, can you please continue commentating about this game?' Professor McGonagall shouted at him.

'Yes Professor, just a little background information, Desrosiers has the Quaffle, passes it to Lefebvre, passes to Clavel, that pass is intercepted by Ballard, who speeds back up the pitch, passes to Johnson, passes back to Ballard, who scores, 120-70 to All Hallows…'

I tuned out again, I looked for Matilda, I saw her about twenty meters from me, and she was diving towards a flicker of gold… Marcels noticed this too, he aimed a Bludger at her, and I sped off towards her and hit the bludger away from her.

'Marcel hits the Bludger towards Roberts who has appeared to have seen the Snitch, a nice intercept there from McKeller, Roberts catches the Golden Snitch, 150 points to All Hallows, this remarkable game is over with the final score being 270-100 to All Hallows,'

I flew back down and hugged Matilda and Hayley, we had won our first game, 'party back in our room!' Rory yelled out.

'Yeah, you promised Harley!' I said.

'That commentator was pretty annoying,' Hayley said, 'he kept commenting on all sorts of things,'

'I reckon, how unfair was what he said about Matilda?' Avery said, I noticed his nose looked all red, dry and sore and laughed to myself in my head.

'What did he say about Matilda?' I asked, 'I was sort of blocking out everything he said.'

'He just commented on how she and the Keeper, er what's his name, Laurent Massif, how he saw them together yesterday, and then he went on about how she's with a different guy almost everyday,'

Matilda looked like she was going to cry, I hugged her and said, 'oh, hunny, it's ok, I'll sort him out, after I sort out Avery, what… where'd he go?' I saw him running towards the castle, 'get back here!' I ran after him with the rest of the team behind us laughing.

I finally caught up with Avery, he was I his room, I grabbed my wand off my desk in my room, ran into his room, performed a little jinx that made him break out in hives, then after he apologised and promised to never disturb me when I was sleeping again, I removed them and we had the party in the common room.

There was tons of food, heaven for people like me, and Butterbeer, ahh I could live with this. After helping myself to a numerous quantity of meat pies, sausage rolls, chocolate éclairs, and all sorts of other delicacies, I felt sick and went to my room, I was about to go have a shower, when I saw Sirius, James, Remus, Peter and Lily down near the lake.

I returned the common room and told Hayley and Matilda where I was going, 'you wanna come with?'

'Yeah,' Matilda said.

'Hayley?'

'Nah, I think I might stay here for awhile, still a few drinks to go,' Hayley laughed.

'Ok then, well you know where we are if you wanna join us,' I said, me and Matilda left the room, out of the corner of my eye I noticed Hayley go over and join Avery.

'So, you and Sirius, what happened when we went down to the lake this morning?' Matilda asked slyly.

'We sat and talked about our lives, and hooked up a few times,' I said calmly.

'And?'

'And what?'

'Did he ask you out?'

'Yes,'

'I knew it, what did you say?'

'Yes,'

'I knew it,'

'No you didn't,'

'Ok well, I suspected it,' I laughed, sometimes Matilda was smart, sometimes she was dumb, this time it was the latter.

We arrived down at the lake, and greeted each other, 'so what do we owe this fine, erm, arrival?' James asked.

'I saw that you were all down here and Lily was the only girl, so we thought we'd make it so she wasn't the only girl,' I said.

'Sure it was, you just wanted to see Padfoot,' James replied shaking his head.

'Padfoot?' I asked surprised.

'That's my nickname, I'm Padfoot, James is Prongs, Remus is Moony, and Peter is Wormtail,' Sirius said quickly.

Matilda laughed; I elbowed her in the stomach and said, 'Right, how'd you come up with those?'

'Erm, not sure, they just sort of came about,' Remus said quickly, they're hiding something from me, I can tell, seeing I'm the Queen of Lies.

'Whatever you say,' I said.

'So, are you going to give Sirius a 'hello kiss?'' James asked, Lily hit him on the arm.

'Maybe another time,' I smiled mycute smile.

'Ha, rejected Black, it's your breath I know it!' Remus said, Matilda giggled, I rolled my eyes, I sat down next to Sirius, Matilda purposely sat down next to me, which was conveniently next to Remus because we were in a sort of circle.

'You played really good today, I reckon you might almost beat us,' James said.

'Oh really, well do you wanna bet on that?' I challenged him, little did he know I have never lost a bet in my life and don't plan on it.

'Ok then, if All Hallows beats us our whole team has to do a performance in front of all the schools, and if Hogwarts beat you, you have to do the performance,'

'Ok then, but the losers have to do their performance iner, I'll think of something later, and then the winners get to do a normal performance,' this would be fun, those singing lessons, drama classes, school plays, choir and music lessons would all come in handy now.

'Your on McKeller,' James grinned, we'll announce it to the school tonight at dinner.

'James, are sure this is a good idea?' Sirius asked.

'What you scared you'll look fat in a tutu?' I teased.

'No, I'm just not a good singer,' he said meekly, we all laughed.

'Right then Potter, it's a bet,' I turned to Lily, 'so hows your life going?'

'Oh its good, but I've been studying extra hard because we have our NEWTS coming up,' she was just like my cousin Michael, Laurie and Jazz's triplet.

'Lily, it's the end of September, we don't have our exams till June,' James said muttering.

'James, if you don't start studying now, you won't ever get to be an Aurora, and don't say you'll be a Quidditch star because I know for a fact they only hire people who get good marks,' Remus said.

'Right, well off the subject of exams because our exams our closer than yours, November for us, that's, oh my god, over a month, Anna, I'm going to fail!' Matilda said clutching my arm.

'If you want, I could help you study, and sort of tutor you,' Remus suggested, I don't believe it! He's practically asking her out! Ok, well maybe not quite asking her out, but close enough, a little voice in my head is saying that he just feels sorry for her, but then a bigger voice, the one that controls me tells it to shut up and Matilda is getting a guy that would respect her for who she, er, is.

'Really! Thank you so much!' Matilda said relaxing.

'So Lily, where's Tamara, you two are never usually separated,' I asked.

'Oh, well, you know that Pierre Comeau, from Beauxbatons you versed today?' Lily asked/replied.

'Yeah, oh my god did she hook up with him?' I squealed.

'Yeah, they're going out,' Lily replied, 'they look so cute together though, and he says all this stuff, and his English isn't that great so it all comes out muddled, it's so cute!'

All the guys rolled their eyes at this comment, they just don't understand how hot a French accent is at the moment.

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Hey, hope you liked that chapter, review it now. Oh and before I forget, there's this awesome website called DollzMania, and in one section you can create your own dollz so I made some of the people out of this, and if you want to see them I can email some to you.

Mwahahahaha now you have to review.


	6. A Fight and Conversation with Snivellus

At around four o'clock me and Matilda went back up to the dorm to have a shower after an unkind comment from James about us smelling. We reached the portrait, 'sprinkles,' I said wearily, I was ready to have a nice long shower to get all the smellingness off me and then go to sleep, until I saw something that made me wake up completely, and want to throw up.

There in the corner of the common room we had, was my twin brother, Avery McKeller, with my best friend, Hayley Ballard. Matilda looked at me uneasily, 'erm, I think I might go have a shower,' smart girl she is, get away before I start yelling and throw curses at everyone.

'Avery what are you doing!' I yelled across the room, everyone went dead silent and looked from me, to Avery and Hayley who were going bright red.

Avery got up, walked up to me looked me in the eye, then said, 'what does it look like I'm doing?'

'It looks like your hooking up with my best friend! Hayley, how could you do this! I trusted you!'

'What! Anna since when has it been up to you who I hook up with! I'm seventeen for god sake! I can choose who I like,'

'So you saying that you've liked him ages?'

'Yes I have!'

'Why didn't you tell me?'

'Because, Anna, a) you would have chucked a physc, like your doing now and b) since when have you told me who you liked?'

'Oh, let's think? Hmm, maybe all time!'

'Girls, please keep your voices down, the Serefina dorm is close to us, I don't want you to disturb them,' someone said.

'Oh shut up, it's only five o'clock, who's going to be in bed this early?'

'ANNA MCKELLER! DON'T TELL ME TO SHUT UP!' Ohno, oh no, this is so not good!I just told Mr Pryor to shut up, I am so screwed.

Hayley smirked at me, not a friend smirk, but an enemy smirk, oh my god I'm fighting with my best friend, wait, _ex_ best friend. 'I thought you were someone else,'

'That doesn't give you the right to tell someone to shut up, because they're not a teacher,'

'So…?' I said, well I thought I'd egg him on a bit; I was already in trouble, and what could a little more do?

'Right, I'll find something for you to do tomorrow morning for detention,' Mr Pryor said.

My jaw dropped, 'but that's the Hogwarts verse Serefina game!' He can't do this to me, too late he already has. Mr Pryor turned and left the room, I stood there, Avery was staring at me grinning, 'what are you looking at?' I snapped, he looked at me, and turned away, I stormed out of the common room and headed for the showers, stayed in there for about an hour until I got tired of standing up, and then changed into track pants and jacket, threw my hair up into a loose ponytail, and went down to the hall.

'Hey Lily, hey Tamara, hows it going?' I asked sitting down next to Tamara.

'Same as last time,' Lily replied.

'That's good. Tamara? Tamara? Hello, you there?' She was looking at the Ravenclaw table and a dark haired guy I recognised from the Beauxbaton's team, 'Pierre Comeau?' I asked.

Lily nodded; Tamara turned around to me, and said, 'did you say something?'

'Oh nothing, just saying hi,' I replied grinning, 'mmm, fried rice,' I leaned over and pilled it onto my plate. I was running over what had just happened. I had a fight with my best friend! She hooked up with my twin brother! The twin brother who she swore to help me in my little war against!

'Umm, Anna, are you ok?' I looked up Lily and Tamara where staring at me.

'Oh, yeah, I'm fine,' I continued to scoop fried rice onto my plate.

'Umm, don't you think you've got enough rice?' Tamara asked.

'No, I've only got… oh,' my plate was covered in rice, pilled up high.

'Are you sure you're alright?' Lily asked. Oh well I better tell her, at least then someone will know without hearing it from someone else.

'Yes, I mean no, I mean, urgh! I just saw my best friend hooking up with my twin brother, had a fight with my best friend- wait let me re-phrase myself, ex-best friend- told Mr Pryor to shut up, got detention tomorrow morning so I'm gonna miss the game, and I think I'm failing potions!' I had a lot of problems, and knowing me, they were just gonna get worse.

'Oh dear,' Lily said. _Oh dear? Oh dear?_ All that happens and all she can say is, _oh dear?_

'Why did you have a fight with her?' Tamara asked.

'Because she hooked up with my twin brother!' I almost cried. Then Sirius, James, Remus and Peter came into the hall and sat down at the table, 'I'm leaving, I don't think I can deal with this anymore,' ok so I'm a bit of a drama queen, but hey, who cares? Well not Hayley for sure…

I heard Sirius say something behind me as I got up, 'did I do something wrong?' I didn't get to hear the reply because I walked out of the hall quickly and ran up the endless flights of stairs till what I figured out to be the seventh floor. I ran up and down thinking about needing to escape and relax in place that no one could find, just so I could be alone to figure out what I had done wrong to have my best friend betray me. 'ANNA! ANNA WAIT UP!' Great, Sirius had followed me; I spun around and saw a door, opened it and ran in.

It was full of comfy chairs, tissue boxes, books for reading, magazines, sat down on a chair and grabbed a teddy bear that was nearby and squeezed it, then threw it onto the other side of the room, it was nothing like my Hello Kitty or Sam, the little stuffed lamb, given to my by my muggle grandparents the day I was born.

I wonder what sort of room this was, I lay down and cried into a pillow, Hayley was right, I had no right to control her like that, I mean, sure he is my brother, she can go out with anyone she likes… but he's my twin brother, best friends brothers are off limits, you're welcome to go out with that brothers friends, but not the brother, if he were my cousin, things would be entirely different, but he's my brother.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard banging on the door, I stared at it, not sure what to do, open it or not open it, open it or not open it? Open it or… 'SIRIUS GO AWAY!' I mainly said that because I didn't want him to see me with my puffy red eyes.

'Anna, do you want to tell me what's wrong?' He asked, yes, then again no, I don't want him to know what a brat I've acted like.

'No,' I said crossing my arms and turning around with my nose up in the air, just like a snob that all the muggle schools thought All Hallows was a snobby school that was extremely hard to get into, and that you had to have the right connections, well of course you had to have the right connections to get in, and it is selective, I mean you have to be able to do magic… not that the muggles no that or anything…

'Anna please, Lily told me a brief description, just like what you told her,'

'Then you seeing you already know the brief outline of the story then you don't need to know anymore so you can go away,' I sat down with my back to him on a bean bag chair, not realising what it was I sank through. Sirius laughed, 'what are you laughing at?' Whoa, I'm in a snappy mood today, PMS probably.

'Nothing,' he said trying to keep his face straight as he sat down on the bean bag next to me, 'come on, tell me what it is,'

I can't help it he's so hot, and that smile is so sweet and caring. 'Just after me and Matilda left you guys because James said we stink, when we got to the common room, there in the back corner was Hayley and Avery hooking up, all over each other, I started yelling at them they started yelling at me, I yelled back, someone told us to be calm down and sort it out civilly, I told them to shut up, only to find out it was Mr Pryor he gave me detention for tomorrow morning so now I'm going to miss your game, and I've lost my best friend to my brother!' I'm over reacting I know it, but if you've ever lost your best friend to your twin brother…

'It's ok, you still have me,' oh he's so sweet, I leaned my head on his shoulder and cried. I look terrible when I cry, because I have bright blue eyes which everyone comments on as being really pretty, my eyes go bloodshot, and puffy, my face goes all red and splotchy, he looked down at me into my eyes, 'you know Anna, you really shouldn't cry, it looks terrible on you,' I scowled at him and hit him on the arm, 'come on, go wash your face in that basin there, and then you can come back down to dinner, I think there should be some of your fried rice left, depending how much James, Remus and Peter ate.

I got up and rinsed my face, and we left, 'oi, what room was that?'

'That room was the Room of Requirement, and it turns into what ever you need, or want, and can be completely oblivious to people around, it was extremely hard for me to get into that room, I was worried you'd do something drastic,'

'Me? Do something drastic? The most drastic thing I've ever done would be to give the Beauxbaton's Keeper a concussion so he couldn't concentrate and we could get more goals,'

'Well that's usually the point of a Beater,'

'Oh, well seeing as you're the greatest Beater ever,' he was grinning, 'second to me of course…' he gave me a jokingly glare, 'what? I thought people liked the truth… I guess not then,'

We got to the hall and sat down up the end where all the late people could eat dinner, the rest of the table was filled with desserts, I saw Hayley and Matilda sitting with Avery, Harley, Johnno and Rory, Matilda looked at me apologetically, I gave her a sour smile, Hayley looked at me in a hopeful way, I completely ignored her.

'You should apologise,' he said.

'Excuse me! I didn't do anything, it's them who should be apologising,' I replied shoving a forkful of rice into my mouth, rice that wasn't heaped onto my plate like last time.

Sirius rolled his eyes, 'come on, it's not that big a deal,'

'Well your best friend never hooked up with your brother did he?'

'If my best friend hooked up with my brother a) because he would be cheating on his girlfriend, and b) that would be totally unnatural,'

'Well then, just say, erm, Lily or Tamara hooked up with your brother, then what would you do? Oh saying that they weren't going out with anyone,' I added.

'I think the difference between hooking up with your brother and my brother, is that your brother is not in the verge if becoming a Death Eater, and anyway, he wouldn't hook up with Lily because she's a muggle,'

'Yeah, but she's pretty…'

'So? They'd rather go out with Bellatrix, than Lily,'

'Bellatrix?'

'My cousin, she's a Slytherin, see the one over there? The Goth looking one?'

I looked over to the Slytherin table and recognised her from my Defence Against the Dark Arts class, 'oh, her, she's pretty though, in an evil sort of way…'

Sirius snorted into his soup, 'tell her that and she'll prance around like she's the Queen of England,'

I laughed; Sirius makes me feel so much better, 'so is she going out with anyone?'

'Lestrange, another Slytherin, word is that he got her pregnant in the holidays and she got him to perform the Cruticus Curse on her to kill it,'

'That's horrible!'

'I know,' Sirius grimaced.

'Can I bash her up?' I asked hopefully.

'Not unless you catch her without a wand and without the rest of her gonna-be Death Eaters,'

'Who's the rest of her group?'

'The rest of Slytherin,'

'If all of Slytherin are Death Eaters, why don't they just kick 'em all out as soon as they get sorted, ship them off to Azkaban?'

'I suggested that toDumbledore when Regulus arrived, but no, I just got kicked out of his office,' I laughed; I could hardly believe I was fighting with my best friend and in such a good mood.

I was annoyed when dinner was over; I left Sirius and went back to the dorm and straight to my room, I got out a pen and paper and began to write to mum.

_Dear Mum, _

_Things are going really good, we won the first game we played, I gave the Beauxbaton's Keeper a concussion, it was so funny. I met a guy, his name is Sirius Black, and we're sort of going out, I mean, well we are going out, he's so hot, he's from Hogwarts, the only problem being that at the end of October I'll have to leave him, but then it's only a high school romance, not like it'd last anyway._

_The Hogwarts castle is ginormous, there's all these secret passage ways, millions of ghosts, its so cool, but then I will always prefer Hallows seeing that its in the city, and we have electricity, not floating candles. Me and Hayley had a fight today and I'm not talking to her, can you believe that she hooked up with Avery of all people, I was positive that she and Rory would end up together, they have so much in common and are so much a better couple!_

_Do you think that you could send some coloured dye from work? Matilda wants to dye it pink, make sure it can be washed out straight away though, send some other colours too for experimenting, like purple and blue._

_Well gotta go, love always,_

_Anna._

_xoxo_

_P.S. I got detention for tomorrow morning because I told Mr Pryor to shut up when we were having the fight, and so I miss the Hogwarts vs. Serefina game and I feel so bad because Sirius came to my game and I can't go to his._

I put it in an envelope and left to go to the owlery. On my way out of the room I passed Hayley and Matilda, Hayley went to say something to me, but I completely ignored her, I didn't want to talk to her.

I heard someone running after me, I didn't want to turn around, it was probably Hayley, wanting to tell me how much she was in love with my brother.

'Anna, wait!' Well it was Matilda, close enough, I kept walking, 'Anna, turn around and talk to me right now!'

'No Matilda, I'm not in the mood for being told what a control freak I am,' I said angrily.

'Anna I don't want to call you a control freak! I just wanna talk,' she said.

'Well I don't want to, because you'll just tell Hayley everything I said,'

'No I won't! I just wanna ask you if you asked about the pink dye,'

'Oh…'

'But if you're gonna be like that I won't bother…'

'Matilda!'

'What? Did you ask her?'

'Yes I did, I'm just trying to find the owlery now so I can mail the letter to her,'

'Ok then, well good luck in trying to find it,' she sniggered.

'What's that supposed to mean!' I asked her.

'Oh, well you know this place, so many, erm, ways…' Matilda pointed out.

'Right,' I replied slowly.

'Well I'm going,'

'Ok, see ya later,'

I walked along the empty corridors, I had no idea which way I was going, I decided to turn left when I ran into someone.

'Oh my god I'm so sorry!' I said helping them off the ground.

The person looked up, it was Snape, eww, need to wash my hands.

'Watch where you're going!' He said.

'Oh that's rich coming from the person who's reading as their walking,' I snapped angrily.

'At least I'm not blind like some people around here,' ooh I really don't like this guy and his lame retorts.

'Ok, that is a really bad comeback, in fact, it doesn't even classify as a comeback,' I said.

'Oh, and you're the Queen of Comebacks now are you?'

'No, I'm the Queen of Lies. Now can you tell me where to find the owlery?' I don't want to talk to him.

'I knew it, you can't fight to save your life,' I glared at him, before he said, 'top floor, third staircase,' He started reading his potions text book again. What kind of loser reads their potions text in their spare time, wandering the corridors? Wait I got the answer! A loser who hasn't got any friends! Ha ha ha, aww that's mean, but he deserves it after what he said to me.

'Er loser how is that supposed to help me, I still have no idea where to go, seeing your not doing anything important, could you show me the way?' He looked over the top of his book and glared at me, 'what?'

'Do you really think that after talking about me in Defence Against the Dark Arts and then just calling me a loser, that I would want to help you?' He replied. LOSER is all I can think at the moment. But he does have a point; I mean would I help someone who called me a loser? Well I'd help them on their way to the school nurse, or in this case the Hospital Wing.

'Hey! That was Hayley, and anyway I'm not talking to her at the moment,' I said, you know what I'm starting to think I'm a snob, because I always turn my head with my nose up in the air and cross my arms.

'Why?' He asked.

'As I'd tell someone I don't know, who isn't willing to help me find the way to the owlery,' I replied angrily, 'now are you going to show me the way or am I going to hex you?'

He was about to say something when he was lifted up into the air by some unknown force and was being dangled by his ankle, I could see his scungy grey undies that were going slightly see-through, and felt like I'd be sick, 'Anna, why are you talking to Snivellus?'


	7. Chapter 7

Good to see you came back, thanking all the people who reviewed. I've decided I'm not going to bother with a disclaimer anymore, because if I actually owned Harry Potter, then this storywouldn't be a FanFiction.

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It was James, 'Snivellus? Who… ah,' I said at the dangling Snape who was cursing at James, 'he was telling me how to get to the owlery, great bloody help he was…' I kept muttering about him and how useless he was.

'This your book?' James asked picking up his potions text.

'Give it back to me Potter!' Snape hissed upside down, his face going red because all blood rushed to it.

'Umm, James, I think you should let him down before he passes out,' I said.

James waved his wand without saying anything and Snape collapsed on the ground, '_wallerumbus_,' James muttered and as Snape tried to get his book from James he couldn't because he had put up an invisible wall, or box around Snape. James flicked through the book, there were hand notes written in all over the place, how to make potions work better, and hand made spells, what James found most humorous though was that written in the front of the book was, _This Book is Property of The Half Blood Prince._

Me and James laughed, 'the Half Blood Prince?' I laughed.

'Give it to me,' Snape said trying to get through the barrier but just getting bounced off.

'So is that what all your friends- invisible friends call you these days?' James asked egging him on, so what does this spell do? It says for enemies…'

'Potter I wouldn't do that spell if I where you,' Snape said cautiously.

'Why, because your to chicken?'

'Potter I'm warning you don't use it,'

'_Sectumsempra! _Whoops, too…_' _Snape collapsed, gashes opening on him everywhere. James went pale instantly and got rid of the invisible box.

'Oh my god you killed him! You killed Snape!' I screamed, James collapsed onto the ground next to him and started muttering counter curses trying to fix him up.

'Anna shut up! Go get help!' He yelled at me.

I ran in the direction of where I thought the hall was, I ran into Professor Dumbledore, I didn't want to tell him, but then, I didn't want Snape to die and James be the cause, 'Professor! We need your help! James did this curse on Snape, which was in Snape's book and then all this blood came out of him, and there's blood everywhere, and I think Snape is dying, and we need your help!' We were already running in the direction of where Snape and James were, we found them, a large pool of blood around them and James was muttering as many spells as possible to help him.

Dumbledore ran over to them and pushed James out of the way, he muttered a spell and Snape's wounds all healed but he was still covered in blood, 'Mr Potter, Miss McKeller, please go to my office, I'll be there as soon as I get Mr Snape here to the Hospital Wing,'

'Yes sir,' James muttered. Professor Dumbledore took Snape up to the Hospital Wing and James lead me to his office. We got a few peculiar looks from people in the halls, it was about 7.30, so there were still a number of people in the halls, they asked us questions, but James grabbed my arm and dragged me up to Dumbledore's office.

We came to a gargoyle, James said the password, 'rumballs,' and we entered a large winding staircase, kind of like an escalator, we got to the large double doors and sat down on two chairs in front of a large desk, all around the room where various objects and devices.

James collapsed into a chair, 'he told me not to use it, and he knew what it did…'

'James it's not your fault, he was the one who had it written in there, the one who obviously made it, and said it was for enemies, I think he's a Death Eater,'

'Anna, he told me not to use it, I thought it'd do something stupid, like turn him into a giant chicken or something,'

I sat down on the chair next to him, we were both a mess, James all pale and clammy, soaked in Snape's blood, and me whose eyes are probably still a bit bloodshot from this afternoon, and I had a bit of blood on my clothes and body.

The door opened and Dumbledore came in, 'Mr Potter would you like to tell me what happened?'

James sighed, 'I was doing my Head Boy duties and I saw Anna and Snape arguing, so I, er, jinxed him like I, um, usually do, I made him hang upside down, and he dropped his potions text which he was reading, I picked it up, and it was open to a page, on the side written in his own writing was a spell labelled, _for enemies, _so I asked him about it, he told me not to use it, but I did anyway, I didn't know what it would do, and then he was bleeding everywhere, that's when Anna ran for help,'

'Is that what happened Miss McKeller?' Dumbledore asked me, his twinkling blue eyes staring me down.

'Yeah, only that the spell, I think Snape made it himself,' I replied.

'Well Mr Potter, I hardly see that it's your fault seeing that it was in Mr Snape's own writing and you had no idea what it did, but I'm still going to have to give you detention for attacking other students,'

'Yes sir,' James replied glumly, I bet he probably thought he should be expelled.

'You two may go now, I will have to ask Mr Snape about the spell when he has recovered,' James and I quickly left his office without a sound.

'So what were you doing talking to Snape?' James asked.

'I was asking how to get to the owlery, he wasn't much help though,' I replied.

'It's this way,' James led me to the owlery, a large room, with owls on perches everywhere, well that's only half obvious. The ground was littered with owl droppings, bones, and hay. We picked our way through it until I found one of the schools barn owls and tied the letter to its leg; it flew off into the night. James and I sat looking out at the night, I was starting to think I would have been better off never coming to Hogwarts, I mean of everything that's happened the only good thing that's happened is meeting Sirius, but we're only seventeen, and I hardly doubt it'll last seeing in just over a month I'll have to return to Australia and All Hallows.

I looked at my watch; it was quarter to nine, 'we better be going, it's almost nine o'clock,' I whispered, 'plus we need showers now,'

James chuckled, 'you're right, I bet Sirius and Remus are wondering where I am, and your friends with you,'

I snorted, 'they're probably happy to get some time away from me,'

'Don't say that, you and Hayley really should get over what happened, it was a stupid disagreement, over a guy,' I stared at James, 'I'm not saying that girls are better than guys, far from it, it's the other way around really,' I punched him in the stomach, 'fine, but seriously, don't loose a friendship over a, er, crush,' he decided on a word that would sound appropriate, and I called Snape a loser.

'Right, well it's her loss, not mine, I'm going,' trust James for standing up for Hayley, everyone's always against me.

I stalked off to the dorm we were in, ignored everyone in the common room who were asking me about the blood, I reached my room when I heard Hayley and Matilda inside talking, 'she's just too proud to admit that she's wrong,' I heard Matilda's voice say, I sighed, she was right, but I am too proud, and I'm not going to admit I'm wrong, because I'm not wrong! Hayley's wrong! And I knew Matilda would be on her side.

'She's never going to forgive me, I mean I guess he is her brother,' Hayley said, well at least she's making sense.

'You two really need to get over it, you're being really childish,' as if Matilda can say if people are childish or not.

'Matilda, you can't talk,' Hayley said, we have so much in common, then again we don't agree on Avery, 'I'm not the one being childish, she is, if she could just get over herself, but then she's always been like that,'

'Are you saying I love myself?' I said storming into our room, 'well thanks for telling me!'

'Anna…' Matilda began.

'Don't even bother, now that I know you're on her side,' I said angrily.

'I'm not on her side, and if you're gonna be like that, then maybe I will be on her side,' Matilda said, her eyes narrowing, she so could not pull off the dangerous look.

'Fine, be like that, I don't need you,' I replied, I went over to my cupboard and changed into my pyjamas, 'now if you don't mind I'm going to bed,' and I went to bed thinking about the worst day of my life. (A/N: poor Anna, she's had such a long difficult day, I would hate to have a day like that.)

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I woke up at quarter past eight because Hayley didn't wake me up like she usually did, I rushed to change into my uniform, found out I didn't have any clean socks or stockings so I just wore my thongs (A/N: for any American's thongs are not a type of underwear, they are flip-flops or what ever you call them over there, not g-strings). It was a really cold day, I was wearing my jumper and blazer, I had tights under my skirt, my feet were about to get frost bite, I just hope I won't have to go outside for my detention, and I had my New South Wales State of Origin Scarf, which wasn't for the football, but for the Quidditch version.

I sat with Sirius and James who were looking nervous because they had their first game ahead of them, I had a large bowl of porridge, and a cup of coffee, 'where's Remus?' I had noticed he was missing from the table.

'He's sick, accidentally drank a drink that we had spiked for Malfoy,' Sirius replied.

'So, er, did James tell you what happened with Snape?' I asked nervously, James still looked a bit upset about the whole thing.

'Yeah, we've decided no more attacking people unless they're attacking someone else,' Sirius replied.

'And, no more pranks,' James added.

'Mr Potter, I never thought I see the day when you proclaimed that,' Professor McGonagall said.

'Neither did I. Hows Snape?' James asked glumly.

'He's better, he'll be out this afternoon,' McGonagall replied, 'Miss McKeller, your detention for today will be with Mr Filch, your going to be cleaning the owlery.

I groaned not all that hay, bones and droppings! That is so not fair; Mr Pryor so has it in for me. At least James and Sirius were more amused, 'hey good luck with your game,' I said before trudging up all the stairs to the owlery to be greeted by Mr Filch, the feral looking caretaker.

'Miss McKeller is it?' He grinned, a yellow crooked, almost rotting teeth grin. I felt sick, all morning with this hobo.

'Yes,' I didn't want to look at his murky eyes, there was something about him, I mean, how does a wizard end up with a job like this? I bet he got expelled or something, if he did, it must have been something pretty bad, I mean, most people who get expelled from magic schools get sent to Konane, which is for all young witches and wizards with behavioural problems, but still should have the chance to learn.

'Right, the bins in the corner there, broom and fork are over there, fresh hay bails are there, start work,' I groaned again, 'if this isn't done in two hours by the time I get back, you can mop out the dungeons,' I hate this guy, evil guy, I hope something bad happens to him, 'oh and no magic,' he must have seen me get out my wand, he cackled, an evil cackle.

I stuck both my middle fingers up behind his back, and when he had disappeared around the corner I grabbed the pitch fork and started shovelling piles of straw, bones and droppings into the bin. After half an hour I sat down on the one of the few clean areas there and looked out the window, I could see the game slightly; I was annoyed being stuck up here, while everyone else was down there.

I grabbed the pitchfork and started working again, I saw Filch cross the grounds, I had the urge to drop the fork on his head, and then decided I didn't want to go back to All Hallows and miss all the other games so I kept shovelling. The highlight to the whole morning was when a bunch of first years past under the tower so I swept a pile of whatever was on the ground out the window and onto their heads.

Two hours later and I was finished just as Filch appeared at the top of the stairs, he seemed upset over the fact that I had finished on time and muttered angrily and let me go. I ran to our rooms, grabbed my bag, and sprinted down to the hall. It was fairly empty so I ran to the Quidditch pitch to hear an ear-splitting roar, I take it Hogwarts won.

I saw Sirius and James come up followed by a group of Hogwarts students, the majority being Gryffindors, the minority were Slytherines. 'WE WON! HA MCKELLER WERE EVEN!' James yelled out to me.

I ran over to Sirius and hugged him, 'congratulations, though I doubt your skills as a Beater were as great as mine…' I didn't get to finish what I was saying, he put his hand over mouth so I could speak, so I started spitting all over his hand. He quickly removed it and wiped his hand on my skirt.

'Hey, that's one of my few clean clothes left!' I said.

He shrugged, James laughed, 'so how was detention with Filch?'

'Oh you know, same old, same old, got the urge to hit him over the head with the pitchfork, dropped a number of rat bones and owl droppings onto a group of first years heads. They all laughed, we past Matilda and Hayley, ha, I don't need them when I have Sirius, James, Lily and Tamara.

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To Be Continued…

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Ooh, read and review, I know this chapter is short but I'm beginning to get writers block so they may remain around this length for a while, depends how much I can think up. Big thanks for all the reviews 


	8. Soooooooooo Over It

**Thanks for the reviews, I've said it before and I'll say it again, they make me soooooooooooooo happy!

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**

I want my friends back! I can't be friends with Sirius because I'm kinda going out with him, James and Lily are always all over each other, or Lily is studying like crazy, and Remus has suddenly 'disappeared', Tamara is off with Pierre, and that leaves Peter, who I don't like at all. Something to do with the rat like appearances, the watery blue eyes I think, also that he's short and fat and stupid.

It was Defence Against the Dark Arts, and me and Hayley were forced to sit next to each other. We had both moved our chairs to the far sides of the table, but somehow the table seemed to get even smaller, in fact looking around it was about half the size of the other benches.

'Hayley move over,' I said in a low voice.

'I can't move any further, you move over,' she replied through clenched teeth.

'I can't move any further over, why do you think I asked you?' I replied…duh? How dumb is she?

'Then how come our desk is so small?' she asked.

'How should I know?'

'Miss Ballard! Miss McKeller! Would you kindly like to share with the class what you are gossiping about?' Professor Healy asked glaring down at us.

'We were hardly gossiping,' Hayley said.

'If you weren't 'gossiping' then what were you doing?' Miss Healy looked down at them with a wide grin revealing her greyish coloured teeth.

'We were arguing,' I replied.

'What about? I daresay it wasn't about which shampoo Mr Snape uses?' Hayley and I went pink; I looked over at his desk and noticed he was still missing. 'So where is Mr Snape?'

'Erm, in the Hospital Wing…' I replied sullenly about the incident last night.

'Ahh yes, you and Mr Potter's little encounter,' ooh she was evil. She even grinned evilly.

'Yeah…moving on now, shouldn't we be continuing our work?' I asked.

She glared at me, 'I still haven't found out what you two were arguing about.'

Not like it really concerns you… 'We were arguing about our desk being extremely small,' Hayley said.

There was a snort of laughter from behind us, 'MR BLACK WHAT DO YOU FIND SO FUNNY?'

Jeez how obvious could it get?

'BLACK PUT OUR DESK RIGHT NOW!' I screamed at him, he he, he looked shocked.

'Um, no, not until you two get your fight sorted out,' Sirius replied. I hate him sometimes.

'You two are fighting?' Professor Healy asked us.

I glared at Sirius, and then over at Avery's table, he looked really sorry. I'll deal with him later.

'Yes miss,' Hayley replied sullenly.

'Right then, you two out now, and sort it out,' she pointed to the door.

I just sat there.

Hayley just sat there.

We both just sat there with our mouths open.

'What? Just go outside and sort it out?' I asked surprised.

She glared at us.

'Fine,' Hayley sighed and we walked outside and sat down.

'I always thought she was a bitch,' I said.

'So did I,' Hayley said.

We both stood there awkwardly for a minute, I sat down and lent against the wall, Hayley did the same next to me.

'So, er,' how to begin? Stupid teachers, 'look you can go out with Avery if you want, I'm just warning you, I might be a bit funny round you two, that's all,'

'Really? So we friends again?' Hayley asked.

'Yeah,' I replied, Hayley got up to go back inside, 'oi, don't go back inside you loser, we can miss out on class if we stay out longer,' ahh I have my best friend back, now I don't have to hang out with Pettigrew.

'You're a smart one,' Hayley said jokingly, 'so what happened with Snape?'

'Oh, well, er, I was trying to find the owlery, to send mum a letter, and I asked him for directions, he wasn't much help, then James came along cursed him so he was hanging upside down, pretty feral because you could see his jocks, they were grey and slightly see-through,'

Hayley gagged and made a throwing up sound. I laughed; we always get over our fights quickly.

'Yeah, moving on, and then James picked up his potions book, that's Snape's potions book, and found a spell, didn't know what it did, but tried it and then Snape had a million cuts and was bleeding and yeah,' Hayley looked at me with her mouth open.

'So is he dead?'

'No! Jeez, he's like going to be out of the Hospital Wing tomorrow, so-'

'Miss McKeller, Miss Ballard, you hardly sound like you two are fighting,' oops, three guesses who it was.

'Yeah, that would be because we got over our fight, duh.' He he, I love Hayley, as a friend.

'Inside both of you, and because you have wasted valuable class time you have extra homework,'

'Why? We were only outside for like five minutes!' Good one Hayley, go get yourself another detention.

'Miss Ballard if you can tell me exactly what I explained in those five minutes you can be excused,'

Hayley glanced over to Avery and Harley, Avery mouthed something, and Harley mouthed something completely different.

'Erm, Patronus'?'

Professor Healy's eyebrow twitched.

'Sit down both of you,'

I gave Hayley five while Professor Healy went back to her desk.

'You two friends again?' Sirius asked in a low voice as we sat down.

'What does it look like?' I asked Sirius back.

'It looks like-'

'BLACK!' Professor Healy said spinning around.

'Which one?' Sirius asked sweetly.

Bellatrix glared at him from across the room, she was actually really pretty, but in a dark and glaring way.

'Don't be stupid! You know which one I mean,' the Professor almost screamed. Sheish, temper, temper.

'I was just asking, I mean it could have been the good one or the evil– Ok, ok, I'm going outside,' Sirius got up and James laughed at him, patting him on the back.

Finally after one long gruelling hour, me and my newly re-instated best friend had to go our separate ways because I had potions and she had Arithmancy. We hugged as I went down to the dungeons and she went to some probably nice, sunny, warm room.

'Anna! Anna wait up!' It was Matilda, 'hey, are you two friends again or something?'

'Oh, that's right, your not in our Defence class. Yeah we're friends again, long story though, I'll tell you another time when I can be bothered,'

Matilda pouted, she's good at that.

'Oh fine. In DADA, we were arguing over our desk because it kept getting smaller and we were forced to sit closer to each other, thanks to Sirius, and then we were sent outside to sort it out. That sums it up,'

'Oh! I'm so proud of both of you!' Matilda hugged me.

'Who are you? My mother?'

'No… speaking of mothers, did you ask about the hair dye?'

I sighed, who ever Matilda ended up marrying, I pity them.

'Yes, I asked for a whole selection of colours,'

'Oh goody! Then we can colour them for our game on Saturday!'

'Depends when they arrive, I only sent it last night,'

'Oh well, there's always our game against Haamid, then we can show that we really are more colourful than them,'

'Yes Matilda…'

I was glad to be in potions, a) because we had the fires lit under our cauldrons so my feet could defrost, I think I have frostbite and b) I would be able to site next to Sirius and not to Matilda, who is one of my besties, don't get me wrong, its just she can get a little, er, over whelming.

'So, McKeller, I was wondering, what colour tutu are you planning on wearing this weekend?' It was the one and only James Potter.

'What?' I had completely forgotten about the bet, 'oh right, well just so you know I sent in an order form for yours today, I figured since you were so set on winning, that it may have slipped your mind, I thought a nice pink, with gold and purple sequins would look good, especially with that black hair of yours,' I winked at him. And he glared at me, 'what? Did I say something?'

I skipped ahead and sat down; Sirius would be a while seeing he was having his detention sorted out.

'Miss McKeller, is there any reason why you are wearing thongs and not proper school shoes?' Professor Slughorn asked.

'Yeah, there is actually,' I replied. This walrus could be so annoying.

'Would you like to inform me?'

'Not really, but I suppose I have to. Well, I had no clean socks or stockings this morning.'

'Couldn't you borrow any of your friends?'

'Well no, because I wasn't talking to any of my friends this morning, well I pretty much didn't have any friends this morning, so yeah,'

'Very well then, but you do realise you won't be able to make the potion today because of the hazard something may spill on your foot,'

'Yes sir,' ah well, just potions, it's not like I was good at it or anything. But my feet, my poor, cold feet.

'Hey Padfoot, what did Healy do?' James asked.

'Nothing really, just lectured me about being a smart arse and all, and told me I shouldn't go around calling people evil,' (A/N: if only she paid attention in Divination, then she might have realised what Bellatrix would do…)

'Really? She's in a good mood today,' I said.

'Oh yeah, and she gave me detention for Friday night,' Sirius added.

'Ha suck, that means you'll be up all night and then you'll be so tired you'll fall asleep on your broom during Saturday's game, which is, may I remind you, against, moi,' I told him, ah imagine, pegging a Bludger at your sleeping boyfriend.

'Whatever. What does _moi_ mean?' Sirius asked.

'I dunno, I think it's French for me. Ask one of them, or Tilly, she'd know, she can speak French, I think…' well it's not my fault if Matilda doesn't speak French; she's a bit hard to understand sometimes though…

'Right…' Sirius said.

'Miss McKeller, seeing as you won't be participating in today's class; perhaps you could run these papers to the staffroom for me?' Professor Slughorn said.

'Oh, sure,' I hope he didn't mean actual running, because my feet are aching with cold and I think my thongs are giving me blisters.

'You mean your abandoning me! With James!' Sirius said in a fake horror.

'Jeez, I'm not that bad am I? Actually, it might be better if you didn't answer that,' James said.

'Now, now, Mr Black, your little lady will be back before you know it,' Slughorn chuckled. _Little Lady? Little Lady!_ The nerve of him.

Sirius obviously saw that reaction of mine and smiled sweetly at me. I glared at him. And then went to deliver whatever was in these envelopes.

'I think I can trust you not to open these?' Slughorn asked.

Now why would I open them?

'Of course,' I smiled brightly before running off.

Now where would the staff room be…? Near Dumbledore's office? I headed that way.

Ten minutes later… ok fine, I guess it isn't here. I looked down at the envelopes, now that's interesting;

_Madame Maxine,_

_Beauxbatons_

I flicked through all of them, Durmstrang, Haamid, Serefina, All Hallows, back to Beaux… ah All Hallows.

_Professor Macintire_

_All Hallows_

No one would notice would they…? I said a simple little spell which opens envelopes and leaves them unaltered in any way. There were a quite a few pieces of parchment inside. I laughed. The UK and their parchment, they were all so cute, and they used quills too! That always made me laugh.

I opened the first one was titled;

_Results for Hayley Ballard _

Hmm, this is interesting, now, where would Anna McKeller be I wonder? I flipped through them all, this might be McKeller… Avery, close enough, one more to go… maha!

_Results for Anna McKeller_

Only I never got to find out because someone's arm came down on my shoulder.

'It's not what it looks like! I swear!' I spun around.

It was Sirius.

'Oh, er, hi, um, what are you doing out of class?'

'Slughorn sent me to look for you, said you were probably having trouble finding the staffroom. He was right. I thought you said you weren't gonna look at those?' He grinned down at me, I feel so _short_!

'I wasn't, it, er, fell out?' I quickly shoved the parchment back in and re-sealed it with magic.

'Want me to show you to the staffroom?' Sirius asked.

'Oh that might help, just a tiny bit though,' couldn't help but be sarcastic around him. 'So, how did you know where I was? I mean, you must have found me pretty quick,'

Sirius paled the tiniest bit, 'oh, I just thought you might head towards Dumbledore's office…' he shoved his hand in his pocket, he was pushing something down.

'What's that you've got in your pocket?' Can't help but be curious.

'Nothing…'

'Come on tell me,'

'I told you its nothing,'

'It can't be nothing, you seem worried,'

'Look it's nothing just a bit of scrap parchment,' he pulled out a folded parchment. 'See, nothing special,'

I grabbed it off him.

'So it wouldn't matter if I was too, say, set it on fire?'

Sirius made a grab for it.

'Ooh, so it isn't nothing…'

'Come on Anna, give it to me,'

'Tell me what it is,'

'Anna,'

'Sirius,'

'Staffrooms here, now gimme the ma- parchment,'

'What was that?'

'Nothing, you better hand those letters in,'

He grabbed the parchment off me as I went inside. I scowled at him, dropped the envelopes on a coffee table and left. Sirius was waiting for me, no parchment in site.

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**Now send in the reviews! And as soon as you do, I'll do something nice!'**

**Corey: _snorts:_ sure you will…**

**Me: ignore him, he's totally unimportant.**

**Little Question: Should Sirius show Anna the Marauders Map?**


	9. Quidditch Training and a lost Shoe

**Ok, this may be the last time I update in a while as I'm going on holidays for six weeks tomorrow morning. OMG IT'S TOMORROW! AHHHHHH:runs around mad and bangs into a wall:**

**Corey: um, she'll wake up, soon…just read the story and review…oh you might want to watch out for a bit of language in this chapter, Caitlin was a bit, er, annoyed when she was writing it...

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'Hey where's Moony?' Sirius asked at breakfast.

'Moony?' I asked amused.

'Remus, we've all got our little nicknames, don't ask where they're from, it's sort of one of those to-be-there moments, anyway, I'm Padfoot, James is Prongs and Peter is Wormtail,' Sirius told me.

'Well I'm not going to lie about them being strange names,' I said.

'Don't, you won't be the first to say that,' James said indicating to Lily beside him, 'but Remus, I think he went to the Library.'

'Oh, that's where Matilda is, he's helping her study,' Hayley said.

'Sure that's what they're doing,' James said, Lily punched him on the arm.

'Knowing Matilda you're probably right,' Hayley snorted.

I grabbed some bacon before turning to Sirius

'I'm not going to pretend I've given up on that parchment, because I haven't you know,' I told him.

'That's nice,' Sirius said stuffing his face.

'I hope you know that I will find out,' I told him.

'Yeah, whatever floats your boat,' he was still stuffing his face.

'Are you even listening?' I asked him, Tamara laughed.

'Did she really?' Sirius said, Hayley laughed.

'Sirius I'm pregnant,' he he that should get him.

'That's good –WHAT?' he choked on whatever he had been eating at the time. Hayley and Tamara were rolling around their seat pissing themselves. James and Peter dropped their forks, Lily rolled her eyes

'Ha, got your attention,' I smirked, everyone laughed, 'now are you ever going to tell me what was on that parchment?'

Sirius rolled his eyes, James asked amused, 'what parchment?'

'Nothing,' Sirius said quickly catching James eye.

'Oh for god's sake I'm not that much of an idiot, I saw that, looking at James, I know when there's something going on, and just so you know I don't like being left out of things,' I said angrily.

'Anna, seriously calm down, it's nothing, really,' Sirius said shaking his head.

'I don't believe you,' and it's true I don't, no matter how sweet those big brown eyes are.

'Fine, you can deal with not believing that a piece of scrap parchment is a piece of scrap parchment,' he is such a liar.

'Look I know you're lying, and I don't appreciate it, I'm going to class,' I grabbed my bag left for Transfiguration.

'Erm, Anna, there's still half an hour till class starts,' Hayley said, point out the obvious why don't you.

'Fine, I'll go to the library,' I went off in the direction of where I thought the library might have been.

I walked up a staircase, only to get that terrified sensation that only lasts a couple of seconds when you accidentally miss a step and fall, only this time it was worse, much worse. I was sinking into the step. I dropped my bag and tried to pull my leg out only it kept sinking further, I was up to my knee in this 'step'.

'HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! I'M, er, sinking?' I yelled, damn this huge castle and its tricks.

I looked around, no one.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw something move, 'help?'

That something started laughing, cackling to be exact. I saw a bucket move through the air towards me.

'Uh-oh,' I said looking up. The bucket was directly ahead of me. it tipped upside down splashing freezing cold water onto my head.

The Peeves the poltergeist had decided to take advantage of my little accident. Well I don't know if it was Peeves, but he's the only invisible, laughing, drops buckets of cold water on people's heads. He suddenly became visible and went cackling down the hall

'GET BACK HERE YOU FUCKING LITTLE SHIT!' I screamed.

Just as I screamed, all the first years followed by a couple of teachers came streaming out of the Great Hall.

'Eek,' was all I could say.

'Really, Anna, for a seventh year representing your school, your not giving All Hallows a good name,'

Great, Head Boy to the rescue.

'Piss off James,' I said angrily.

'I thought you might like some help,' he said.

'I can help myself,' I replied. My leg had sunk and it was just below my hip.

'Fine, here's my cloak, you might get a little cold,' James chucked his cloak over to me.

'Thanks,' I said dryly.

'Well I'm just off to Transfiguration, I'll tell McGonagall you might be a little late, just a little caught up with other things…' James left laughing.

I turned my head away from him just to see all the first years climbing the stairs and trampling all over me laughing.

'Hey, leave me alone you little shits,' I said. Ha must be a world record, that's the second time I've used the phrase 'little shit' in the space of a few minutes.

I waited. Why hadn't Hayley and everyone else come up this way? Unless… shit! I'm missing training.

'POTTER! YOU WIN OK? COME BACK AND SAVE ME!' I yelled.

I waited, I felt eyes on me. There was no one around; it must be all the paintings here. They really freak me out, worse than photos.

'SIRIUS! SAVE ME!' I heard laughter, 'please don't be Peeves, please don't be Peeves…'

Someone tugged on my hair; I screamed, 'go away!' they continued tugging on my hair. 'Er, ghost be gone!' I shouted.

Nothing happened, but the laughter continued. It sounded deep and male, and there was more than one voice.

Hang on a second that laughter sounds awfully familiar…

'JAMES! SIRIUS! LEAVE ME ALONE!'

They suddenly became visible again.

'I thought you were calling for hell?' James asked innocently.

I poked my tongue out. 'Help, not hell. Now are you gonna get me out of this or not? I just remembered I have training,'

'Oh, is poor little Annie gonna miss her training session?' Sirius teased.

'Yes, 'little Annie' is gonna miss training, and if 'little Annie' misses training she'll get detention again and then she'll kick your sorry butt,' I said.

'Well if you're gonna be like that…' Sirius said with his nose in the air, probably paying me out.

'Can you just _please_ get me out?' I decided to start the water works.

'Anna don't cry,' Sirius said nervously.

'But you won't help me,' fake tears rolling down my face.

'We were only kidding,' James said, this was obviously working, stupid men.

'But you're not the ones stuck in this, step,' tears becoming a lot more obvious.

'Anna, we're sorry,' Sirius said. He came over and grabbed me around the middle and pulled me out.

'Good you should be,' I said wiping away fake tears.

Sirius sighed, 'look you don't want to be late for training,'

'Yeah and you don't want to be late for Transfiguration and your excuse being you fell for my fake crying,' I said smirking.

James and Sirius looked at me dumbstruck, 'that was fake?' James asked mortified.

'Yup. I better go, I won't get detention today but you will,' I skipped off laughing to the Quidditch Pitch and left complete dumbasses behind me.

* * *

'Anna why are you late?' Mr Pryor asked, 'and all wet?'

'Because,' I said in the tone that launched a long story, 'I got stuck in one of those fake stairs and my leg sunk way above my knee and no one would help me! And then that fu- annoying poltergeist dropped a bucketful of freezing cold water on my head and then James and Sirius were teasing me until they finally got me out. And that's my life story.'

'Anna, you mustn't exaggerate,' he said.

'_Exaggerate? Exaggerate?_ Why would I exaggerate if I was doing anything I was, er, what's the opposite of exaggerating? Oh well I was doing that.' I told him.

'Anna go change and then get straight up into the air. Where's your broom?'

Shit, it was in my room.

'Um, in my room? I know, _Accio Broom_!' I said waving my wand before running into the change room to change into my training gear.

I came back and found Mr Pryor holding it, 'thanks for that,' I said grabbing it off him.

I shot off into the air and began pegging Bludgers at all the people I didn't like very much on the team.

'RIGHT, ANNA AND AVERY! I WANT YOU TWO TO HIT THE BLUDGER BACK AND FORTH TO EACH OTHER ALL THE WAY UP THE PITCH WITHOUT MISSING IT OK?' Mr Pryor called out.

'RIGHTEO THEN,' I called back, 'OI AVERY! READY?'

'YUP!' he yelled back to me.

I pegged the bludger as hard as I could to him, he was about ten or so meters away from me, he hit it back, and it went back and forth between us all the way up to the end and back again, the other Beaters, the reserves, were doing the exact same on the other side of the pitch.

I hit the Bludger to Avery who was doing loops in the air, deciding that I didn't want him looking better than me I started doing hold backs and then speedy dives, then Avery started doing loops and dives at the same time, so I started flipping my broom upside down and hanging off and hitting the Bludger back, until:

'ANNA AND AVERY STOP SHOWING OFF!' Mr Pryor was yelling at us again.

Me and Avery sighed, the I noticed that Mr Pryor was just ahead of Avery and behind him, I couldn't help myself, the Bludger came flying back to me and I hit it in his direction, purposely missing Avery and knocking Mr Pryor off his broom.

'Whoops-a-daisy,' I said giggling.

Avery was laughing, 'good work.'

'Good work? No Avery, you just suck at keeping the Bludgers off other players, and the coach.'

'ANNA AND AVERY GET HERE NOW! EVERYONE ELSE TRAINING'S OVER!' Mr Pryor yelled, again.

Everyone flew down to the ground and looking annoyed at me and Avery, I looked over at the meekly with 'Sorry' written all over my face. Not literally.

'Right you two,' he said when we had landed next to him. 'What do I have to do to get you two to work well together and not try to out 'beat' each other.' He paused, hopefully waiting for us to laugh at his joke, well he was gonna have to wait for the rest of eternity, because his jokes suck. 'Look, you two are the best Beaters our school has ever had, and I don't know if it's because you're twins and have that so called 'twin telepathy', but you need to get in line and stop acting like a bunch of little kids playing in their backyard.'

I wonder if he knew that twin telepathy was just an identical twin thing… if you haven't caught the gist, I wasn't paying attention. Neither was Avery, only he was obvious because you could see the small amount of saliva building in the corners of his mouth and his eyes were slightly glazed over.

'…and I don't want to- are you two even listening?' he asked angrily.

'Wha- yeah!' Avery said.

'Course we are, twin telepathy right?' I said.

He sighed, 'you two go change and get to class.'

'Yes sir,' Avery saluted and started marching away like a soldier.

'Avery you're the biggest tosser,' I said.

'Shut up, it's because of me we got out of that rant,' he said.

'Yeah, and it's your fault we got in it in the first place,' I retorted. Ok maybe it was my fault, but hey, he doesn't need to know that.

'Anna, was it just me, or did I see you lining up Mr Pryor with the Bludger so you could purposely hit him?' Avery asked, ooh he's a smart one.

'It was just you,' I told him.

Avery rolled his eyes, 'come on, we have, no, I don't believe it, Defence Against the Dark Arts again! Isn't there a day at all in this school when we won't have it?' Avery asked pleading.

I glanced over at my timetable, 'nup.'

'Damn, I really don't like Professor Healy,' Avery muttered.

'She's not that bad… I mean she let me and Hayley outside to figure out our fight,' I told him.

'Yeah, true, but she only did that so you wouldn't tear each other up inside her classroom, she told us, just before she put the listening spell on the door so she could hear what you were saying,' Avery said, then realised he said something he shouldn't have.

'She what?' Uh-oh, 'did she, um, happen to hear what I said about her being a bitch? And the bit about Snape's see-through jocks?'

'Yup, every itty bitty word,' Avery said grinning.

'So that's why she was a bit cross when we got back in,' I said as we entered the castle heading towards the Defence Against the Dark Arts room, 'I bet she didn't give us detention because she thought we might have thrown up on entry.'

'Yeah, extra cleaning, but then if you threw up she might have made you clean up as punishment,' Avery said thoughtfully.

'True, ah well, she'll get over it, I won't,' I said thinking about- happy places, happy places…

We lined up outside the room just as a bunch of second years came streaming out.

'Oi Anna, what happened with Mr Pryor?' Hayley asked.

'Nothing, he started lecturing us, then we zoned out and he let us go,' I said.

'Ha, knew you'd get out of it, you usually do,' Harley said joining us.

'That's what you get when you're a McKeller, quick and easy escape out of most things,' I said grinning.

'Yeah, except when it comes to getting caught and have a whole load of evidence against you…' Hayley teased.

'Don't talk to me,' I said in a snotty voice holding my hand out.

'Everybody inside,' Healy said from the door.

Me and Hayley sat down at our usual desk and the class began in its usual boring talk, we were practising Patronus today.

'Look who's back I said nudging Hayley. I pointed over to the front row. Snape had returned. I turned around; James had noticed to and was keeping his back from that direction.

'He's taking it pretty bad isn't he?' Hayley whispered.

'You have no idea,'

'Well done Mr Snape, everyone look at Mr Snape; see how a small silvery wisp has come out of his wand? Well done twenty points to Slytherin, for being able to make an excellent attempt at such a complex spell!'

'_Expecto Patronum!' _I shouted pointing my wand at no where in particular.

A small silvery wisp came out of my wand. 'I DID IT! I DID IT!'

'No Miss McKeller, you didn't do it, keep practising,' I scowled at Healy, stupid cow, give Snape praise but not me.

'Don't worry about her,' Hayley said as she moved on, 'hey can you get something for me to aim at?'

'Sure,' I bent down and slipped my shoe off, 'aim at my shoe,'

'Ok then… _Expecto Patronum!_' Hayley shouted, like me a small silvery wisp came out.

'Oh my god you did it! Sort of…' I said.

'Only because your target sucks,' Hayley teased.

'Hey don't pay out my shoe,' I said chucking it at her.

She caught it and chucked it back.

'Oi, watch this,' I said, turning around and aiming at the back of Sirius' head, 'one…two…three!' I threw the show at him, it bounced off his back.

'What the hell?' Sirius said spinning around.

Hayley and I quickly sat down discussing Quidditch tactics.

'Miss, someone threw a shoe at me!' Sirius shouted across the room.

Everyone started laughing, Sirius went a bit pink.

'Why would anyone do that?' Professor Healy said smugly.

Sirius shrugged, 'I dunno, maybe they don't like me.'

Hayley snorted, I elbowed her in the ribs, 'ow.'

'Well its easy to find out who threw it, just check to see who is not wearing any shoes,' Healy turned around, 'everyone stand up.'

'Eeep,' was all I could say.

I saw James snort when I stood up, with one shoe and one sock that had 'Hayley Ballard' written across the top.

'Well, well, well, Miss McKeller, where is your left shoe?' she had one of those horrible grins.

'In your hand,' I said sheepishly.

'What would posses you throw your shoe at Mr Black's head?'

'Erm, I don't know, just felt like it really. If you really want to know, I saw his back turned away and it felt like the perfect target.'

'Give me your other shoe.'

'My other shoe?'

'Yes your other shoe.'

'Why?'

'Because obviously you don't see the need to wear shoes,' she grinned down at me with those horribly yellow teeth.

I slipped my shoe off with my other foot, then bent down to give it to her, 'here,' I mumbled.

'Good, you can collect them in tomorrow's class,' she said.

Horrible woman, just horrible.

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**Ok now that I have been revived, please review! and I'll send you a souviner from my holiday! or not... if you review I'll send you some Belgium chocolate!**

**Reviewers, thank you, love you lots.**


	10. Turning your Bestie into Almost a Tiger

hey im back from europe got back on tuesday, im so tired i wrote this when i was away.

thanks for the reviews, love ya all.

ok, ive changed the bet in one of the earlier chapters to a streak, cos that other one was lame as and streaks are cool. but i cant be bothered to go back and change it all, okie dokie?

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'Anna, where are you're shoes?' Matilda asked me when we met up later.

I mumbled back, 'stupid cow stole them,' I kicked Hayley who was laughing at me.

Matilda snorted, 'why?'

I rolled my eyes and sighed, Hayley laughed, 'she threw it at Sirius.'

Matilda and Hayley burst out laughing; Matilda just managed to wheeze out, 'why?'

'I felt like it…'

'You are such a loser!'

I hit Matilda, 'bitch.'

'Speaking the truth.'

Sometimes I think I should run away to the circus, and then people will appreciate me.

'So true,' Sirius said hooking his arm over my shoulder.

I pushed I his arm straight back off, 'uh uh, if you're gonna be like that you can find a new girlfriend.' It was a joke.

Sirius feigned shock, 'fine then, hiya Hayley,' he walked over to her.

'Hey, I was just kidding! Hayley, you can't have my boyfriend! You have my brother!' I protested.

'There's always room for more, but in Sirius' case, he's too fat, so move over,' Hayley said.

'Well, I can see where I'm not wanted,' Sirius stalked off towards where Lily and James were.

'Aww, Sirius we were just kidding,' I said.

'I'm not a dumbass, I have Quidditch practice anyways, gotta work off those pounds, see ya later, Hayley,' Sirius smirked.

'Sirius!' I whined, 'meh, his loss.'

I turned around and walked off with my nose in the air, I heard him run up behind me and kiss me on the cheek.

'Ok, you're forgive,' I said.

'Better be,' he said, 'see ya at dinner.'

'See ya.'

Sirius ran off back to James.

'Aww, you two are so cute together!' Hayley said jumping around grabbing my arm.

'Yeah, I know,' I said.

'You're so full of yourself!' Matilda said jokingly.

'Just because I'm all knowing,' I pushed her slightly. She's right though, I am slightly stuck up.

'So when do you get your shoes back?' Matilda asked.

'Next Defence class,' I replied.

'When's that?' Matilda asked.

'Day after tomorrow,' I mumbled. I'm a bad mumbler.

Matilda and Hayley burst out laughing at me. Why do they always laugh at me?

'So, you remember that bet you and James made?' Matilda asked.

'Yeah, what about it?' I replied.

'Well, what do you plan on doing if you have to run a streak?'

'Yeah remember last time? You bet that Matilda couldnt go a month without a boyfriend with Jordana, and natuarlly you lost, and got detention for about a month,' Hayley pointed out.

'Thanks for reminding me, oh just so you know, you guys are all in on it too because it involves the _whole_ team,' you should have seen the looks I got then.

'Too bad if we lose, which I highly doubt because we are to cool for that,' Hayley said, she was always in for a streak, bets only, unless your drunk.

'Hey Matilda, just thinking, we're have you been disappearing off to lately?' Hayley asked, catching my eye.

'Yeah, I've noticed you're away a lot, at the same time Remus is missing,' I said slyly.

Matilda went pink, 'he's helping me study! We have our N.E.W.T.'s in like just over a month!'

'Sure he is, last time I checked, you were getting pretty good marks, in the subjects you were taking, and I thought you didn't really care what marks you got, as long as you used me to find the newest Basilisks' player for you,' I said shocked.

'Well maybe I want to do something more with my life,' Matilda said.

'Come off it, you just know that you can get him,' Hayley said.

'Actually, he's a bit weird, like he's looking a bit sick at the moment and, well, it just wouldn't work, so there, nice friend, smart guy, end of story. Actually I've decided to take a brake from guys, I got a letter from my mum and she said I was getting to be a bit of a skank… like she can talk, but-'

'Yeah, okay, whatever, we get it Tilly,' Hayley said shaking her head.

'Hey Anna, has your mum sent any hair dye yet?' Matilda asked.

'No Tilly, and I think you asked me that this morning,' I sighed, Matilda is like a five year old kid, always changing ideas, and can't stop moving.

'Okie dokie then, hey there's Tonks!' Matilda ran up to the young girl whose hair was blue with pink streaks through it today.

Hayley and I rolled her eyes, 'let's just keep going, she'll catch up, what do we have?'

'Transfiguration, damn, Sirius and James wont be there to make us laugh, ah well we can torment Harley,' I said.

'So Matilda's not in our class?' Hayley asked.

'Has Matilda ever been in our N.E.W.T. Transfiguration class?' I asked eyebrows raised.

'True, forgot. Well let's go, McGonagall will probably turn us into something unnatural if we're late,' Hayley said. She's a smart girl.

'Got it in one, lets go!' I grabbed her arm and we skipped to Transfiguration.

------------------------

'Miss McKeller and Miss Ballard why are you late?' Whoops didn't make it on time.

'Er, we got lost?' He, he, I don't think that went down too well, after being at this school for about two or so weeks.

'Miss McKeller, I highly doubt you were lost, after all you have been at this school for at least two weeks already,' ooh you should have seen her face, one word to describe it: scary.

'Doubt all you like, you're the one-' I put my hand over Hayley's mouth to stop her from saying something stupid which would end her up in detention, again. Then I led her to her seat.

'Now as I was saying today we are looking at- Miss McKeller, where are you're shoes?' Well now's she's interrupting herself, that's just plain rude.

'Er, Miss- Professor Healy confiscated them,' now everyone was laughing at me.

'Why did she take your shoes?' ooh, McGonagall scares me.

I stood silent and red for a second, and then Hayley said, 'because she threw it at Sirius Black!'

The whole class was laughing at me now.

'Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,' I shouted.

'Miss McKeller sit down, everyone quiet. Now as I was saying, being an N.E.W.T. class, I have asked permission for us to begin training so you can be Animagi, but the board said no, so we will be practising turning others into animals. Now can I have a volunteer?' Professor McGonagall said. Surprisingly no one raised their hands. 'No volunteers? Right then, I will have to select you randomly from my roll, Miss McKeller because you were late; select a number between one and thirty.'

'Okay, er, fifteen?' I said. (A/N: now I was told when I was in England, which I am when I'm writing this chapter; that Australians always finish sentences with a question, not on purpose of course but it's just the way we speak.)

McGonagall went through the role and then called out, 'Nicholas Lawrence? Right, up you get in front of the class.'

Nicholas, or Nick we all called him, slowly got up and went to the front of the class like it was his death, which if it were me it would be.

'Now, Mr Lawrence, this wont hurt at all,' McGonagall faced him, 'what's your favourite animal?'

'Um, lion,' Nick said after a long time of thought.

'Pick something else; I don't want a lion in my classroom,' McGonagall said, a few people laughed, I had no idea why, it wasn't funny at all.

'Er, tiger? Hang on, that'd be a no. Um, what about a wolf? A big grey one,' Nick said.

'Yes, I suppose so,' McGonagall was saying, 'now on the count of three, one… two… three, _Amoris Animagus!'_

That's when it started getting interesting, right then, at that moment, from then on, ok I'm stalling know, but yeah you get that to make the story better, or worse… right anyway right then Nick turned into a large grey wolf.

Several girls crooned, Nick's friends, including Seth, whooped and wolf whistled, ha ha, get it? Wolf whistled! Yeah moving on, me and Hayley wanted to run forward and pat it, but thought otherwise the second he opened his mouth revealing a jaw full of large sharp teeth, putting us off.

McGonagall waved her wand and Nick turned back to normal, the class broke into applause. 'Now, you all seemed to enjoy that, get a partner and practise together.'

'Hayley, I'm with you,' I said clinging to her.

'Yup,' she replied.

'Fine, guessing I'm rejected,' Harley laughed moving over to Avery's table (Avery who had moved Transfiguration tables recently) and partnered with Rory.

'Silence everyone,' everyone ignored her because we were way too excited, 'SILENCE!' well we didn't ignore that, 'now that I have your attention, with your partner, your going to first practise the incantation, then picturing the animal your partner wishes to turn into repeat it, make sure you're still picturing the creature, and hopefully they should transform. Now I'm not expecting you to complete the transfiguration on first attempt, and all accidents can be fixed.'

'Well, I'm screwed, especially with you for a partner,' I said to Hayley.

'Thanks Anna, I love you to,' she replied.

'Meh, so you going first?' I asked.

'Yeah ok, um turn me into a, um, dinosaur!' Hayley said.

'Um, Haylz, I hate to disappoint you, but I don't know what a dinosaur looks like,' that's only obvious.

'Oh fine, um make me a tiger just to piss off McGonagall,' Hayley said.

'Okie dokie,' now lets think a tiger, oh I know what a tiger looks like, '_Amoris Animagus!'_

Hayley immediately began to transform, well to an extent, she had an orange sort of face, she had the right colouring for a tiger, and a tail, but not exactly a tiger. Being her best friend I immediately started laughing.

'Anna!' she whined.

'What? You're the right colours, and you have a tail…' probably not the best thing to tell her.

'I have a tail! Anna, fix me!'

'Erm, PROFESSOR! WE HAVE A LITTLE SITUATION HERE! HAYLEY'S NO-'

'Miss McKeller! There is no need to shout, I'm right here!' McGonagall said crossly behind my back.

'Sorry miss,' I said half genuinely.

'Now, what was Hayley supposed to be?' McGonagall asked.

Stupid question, what's orange, with black stripes, a tail and large teeth, hey! Hayley's teeth have grown! Ah, I need a camera. 'A tiger.'

'What did I say about large, dangerous animals?'

'Er, nothing?'

McGonagall sighed. Ah ha! I got the answer right. She muttered a counter spell and with a wave of her magic wand Hayley was back to normal. 'Ok, small animals now okay? Everybody! Only small, less dangerous animals if you please!'

And she stalked off to fix up other spells which had gone amiss.

'Okay McKeller, you're gonna pay,_ Amoris Animagus_!' Hayley shouted in my direction.

And I was right, I was screwed. As I slowly got changed shape and grew extra parts I have only one thing to say. Pain. It hurt so bad I swear to god I thought Hayley was killing me, but then it was over and she didn't hurt me anymore.

My eyes, which were shut tightly slowly opened, one then the other, my first thought being, _what has she done to me?_ And if you really want to know, Hayley had managed to transform me into a goat. Well half a goat at least. I was literally a centaur. Now I was hoping so bad that I would get an essay on how centaurs came about, then I could write: _they were originally wizards whose friends had screwed up and failed transfiguration and took it out on them and instead of turning them into horses, (or goats in my case) they got turned into the creatures we know today. _And I would get an A, or an Outstanding, at least Exceeds Expectations.

'Hayley, what have you done to me?' I asked faintly. I could hear the rest of the class erupting in laughter; well at least Sirius was at training. Or so I thought… actually he was, I'm just scaring myself.

'Well, Miss Ballard, you almost got it, now how did you go wrong, everyone gather round,' I now know why Tamara hates McGonagall so much.

'Um, I turned her into the goat version of a centaur?' see how we make such good best friends? Well if you don't it's because we think so much alike.

'Well, that's the obvious thing,' more laughter from class and my cheeks were burning up, 'what happened, Miss Ballard has when she was thinking of the goat for her friend, she had also envisioned Miss McKeller's face, possibly when she was getting angry at her for discovering she was a goat-'

'You're damn straight,' I growled.

'Don't interrupt, now when she saw both Anna and the goat and said the spell, things got confused and here we have the result in front of us,' McGonagall said.

And now we can have a drum roll please, and introducing Anna, the amazing half goat, half girl and she's also a witch so she'll be performing magic goat tricks! I could hear the circus music running around in my head.

'That's all very interesting, at my expense, so if you don't mind could you turn me back to normal?' I asked, and then added, 'please?' McGonagall nodded then waved her wand and I was back to normal, well as normal as I am. I turned and looked at Hayley, 'you are so dead when I learn to do that spell properly.'

Hayley giggled, 'sure I will.'

'Well maybe not dead, but you will most likely be a mouse and I will be dangling you by your tail to Matilda's cat,' I threatened. Yes, that seemed like suitable punishment.

'Ooh, should I be scared?' Hayley taunted.

'Yes! And now because you're annoying me I shall turn you into something truly terrifying, _Amoris Animagus_!' and I pictured a fat pig and oh and behold I got it perfect! Minus a tail, but what the hey I turned Hayley into a pig. 'I DID IT! I DID IT!' I shouted, then started singing and dancing about, 'I did it, I did it, I did it, ooh ooh,'

'Well done Miss McKeller, even though it is missing a tail, but that doesn't really matter, the point is you have done better than everyone in the class, besides Miss Evans who managed to turn Miss Baker into a sheep, now usually I would give you about fifteen points for your house, but as you don't have a house, here's some chocolate, which I know you will enjoy,' McGonagall said. And she was right; the second after I turned Hayley back she gave the bar to me, Lily who got fifteen points to Gryffindor, was extremely pleased at herself and Tamara who even though had been turned back into Tamara, was still bleating a fair bit, we were all happy and left to go change for dinner.

'Anna, can I have some chocolate?' Hayley asked me.

And guess what my answer was, 'no.'

'But I had to be turned into a pig!' she complained.

'Yeah, and Tamara got turned into a sheep, but she isn't complaining,'

'Oh yes she is,' Tamara said coming up, 'Lily turned me into a sheep after I asked, and she promised, to turn me into a golden retriever.'

Me and Hayley laughed.

'See, I told you they'd think it was funny,' Lily said joining us.

'Yeah, hilarious,' Hayley said, 'at least you knew you were going to change. Anna just hit me with her spell just as she threatened to turn me into a mouse and feed me to Tilly's cat.'

Lily, Tamara and I all laughed, and then Tamara said, 'well we gotta go, our dorm's up this way, see you at dinner.'

'See ya,' Hayley and I said and we went up off to our little dorm, which I may add is hardly worth calling a dorm.

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ok what you think of that chappie? my famous words of wisdom? REVIEW!


	11. Baby Dragons

**Hey, I've finally updated after such a long time, it's just it's exam time, and I had all these assignments to do, and I was heaps behind because I was away for half the term, so it will be a fair while till I can update again, the holidays are in two weeks.**

**Sorry this chapter pretty short, I just wanted something up for you guys before you forgot about me, and I forgot about you.**

**Thanking all the reviewers:bows to all of you: and enjoy!

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**

'He didn't!' Hayley said as we walked down to Care of Magical Creatures class the next morning.

'He did,' Matilda said.

'What did he do? Somebody tell me! What did who do? What did- oh my god!' I said when we arrived.

'He actually did it,' Matilda said.

'And there goes us all doubting him,' I said. Professor Kettleburn had been threatening our disruptive class with saying that he would make us look after baby dragons for a couple of days, starting off with just hatched eggs, and he actually did.

Hayley, Matilda and I looked at the seen in front of us. There was enough baby dragons for one each, each in a little crate, just ready so we could let them out and feed them, clean them, train them, play with them and all other sorts of things which you would normally classify as illegal, especially for a bunch of arrogant and stupid, well maybe not completely stupid (most of the time), seventeen year olds.

'I don't believe it! He actually did it,' James said when he arrived.

'That's just what we've been saying,' Hayley said.

Matilda who had been staring out at the fields worried about all the dreadful things dragons could do, suddenly noticed that Remus had appeared, I had noticed because I'm just way more attentive, also the fact that he was standing next Sirius might have had a small little push.

'Hi Remus!' she said breathlessly.

'Er, hi, did you understand what I told you last night?' Remus asked.

James, Sirius, Hayley and I all looked at the two of them amused, and Matilda who was thinking very hard of what Remus had taught her, 'um, what subject was that for again?'

Remus sighed, we all laughed, kicking each other, 'Potions Tilly,'

Well would you look at that, he called her by her nickname, aww phase one of plan is complete, well it would be if I had a plan.

'Oh, yeah, Potions, yup, I'm a pro now. Almost,' Matilda said laughing.

'Yeah. So, Kettleburn has finally done what he has been threatening to do since last year,' Remus said changing the subject.

'Yup, we better get down there, before all the good dragons are gone,' I said.

James snorted, 'as if there was ever such thing as a good dragon.'

'In Australia we have dragons, Opal something or other, and they eat sheep and kangaroos, and they also live in New Zealand, and they're all shiny,' Matilda said.

'You know, I bet Hagrid's hanging around, yup, I was right,' said Sirius pointing over to where Professor Kettleburn was standing.

'Hey, race you down,' I said charging down the hill to paddock, or what ever it was. Closely followed by Hayley, Sirius, James, Matilda (who was desperately trying not to fall over) and Remus who looked a bit weary walked behind.

'Good, now that you're all here, where's Miss Baker? And Mr Comeau?' Well, there's only one place where those two are, around in some secret passage doing, well I'll leave that to your imagination.

'Don't know, don't care, now lets get on with the lesson,' Sirius said.

'Well, because you're all so eager, today as I have been promising for quite some time, we will be beginning to look after dragons.' the class groaned, me on the other hand, I'm actually looking quite forward to it, 'now, these dragons are all from a reserve, they're all orphans, and within one to four weeks of hatching. Now, there's enough for one each, and as Miss Baker and Mr Comeau are missing, Hagrid will be taking care of theirs, and now get to work, chop, chop.'

We all went off towards the crates which is when the class got interesting, I looked around at the others who were trying to blast open their crates with their wands without the crate breaking or hurting the dragon. But me, being the brains in this place, cough, cough, used the crowbar which was next to the crate.

I closed my eyes, and that was only for a split second because the second the top of the crate came off out jumped a little greeny-blue dragon.

'Aww, my little baby dragon!' I picked it up (not knowing if it was a girl or boy) and cuddled it until it bit me on the nose. 'Ow! No! Bad dragon!' and I gave him a little tap on the side of his snout, just like with a dog.

I looked over to Sirius who was laughing at me as he was opening his crate, bad mistake because while he was laughing at me another greeny-blue dragon jumped out and bit his arse. I laughed, and Sirius let off a string of swear words.

'Now that you all have your dragons out, who can tell me what breed they are?' Professor Kettleburn asked.

Remus put his hand up, 'Common Welsh Dragon.'

'Good boy, five points to Gryffindor,' said Professor Kettleburn, 'now, I want you to name them.'

'Name them? Is he nuts? How long does he want us to have them for?' Hayley whispered.

'A very interesting question Miss Ballard!' Professor Kettleburn said, 'you will have them until you learn the meaning of listening to the teacher and doing what your told!'

'How the hell did he hear what I said?' Hayley said in a normal voice, I guess she decided that there was no point in whispering, good point.

'Beats me, what are you gonna call yours?' I said picking up my dragon like a cat and moving it closer to Hayley's.

'Um, Bluey? Or Greeny? I'm not sure which one suits it better,' Hayley replied.

'Oh very creative,' I said sarcastically.

'Yeah, maybe Blacky… or Fiery, or Annoying-Little-Shit-Who- ow!' Hayley sucked her finger where the nameless dragon bit her, 'do you think it understands English?'

'Maybe it speaks Welsh, but knows a bit of English,' I suggested.

'Yeah, that makes sense…' she said to me sarcastically.

'Well,'

'Well what?'

I rolled my eyes, how thick can she get? 'What are you going to call it?'

'Dunno, erm, what about Nameless, yeah, I like that, hello Nameless,' she crooned.

'That's so mean!' I said.

'No, it would be mean if I called it 'Friendless' but I didn't, it's Nameless, so there!' she poked her tongue out at me. Hayley is so childish! Okay, that's a little hypocritical…

'What are you going to call yours?' Hayley asked.

'Er,' I have absolutely no idea, need to stall… 'hey look at Tilly!'

Hayley looked, and burst out laughing. Matilda was trying to make it sit in her lap so she could bottle feed it, and sing lullabies at the same time.

'Having fun Tilly?' Hayley yelled out.

'Yes! Apart from the bites and a few singed parts its great!' Matilda called back. Gotta love that enthusiasm.

'Well done Miss Roberts! That's the spirit!' Kettleburn called out.

'So?'

'So what?'

Now it was my turn for dumb remarks.

'Er dumbass, what are you gonna call your little fella?'

'It's a girl.'

'How do you know?'

'Um, I don't. Professor, how do you tell if it's a girl or boy?'

'Well, with reptiles it's always harder to tell than most animals, you can't just pick 'em up and have a look underneath. Now, with dragon's its fairly simple, the males usually have horns on their head, of course it's harder with Hungarian Horntails because they're all horny,' most of the class laughed and Kettleburn had no idea why. Don't you just love old teachers who are so behind in everything? Even common language.

'Right, so is it a girl or boy?' Hayley asked.

I looked at it, 'it's a girl! Ooh and yours is a boy! So they can get married! And then they'll have kids and they'll be best friends with each other!'

'Stop stalling! What are you gonna call yours?'

'Is yours a girl or boy?'

'Boy! You already know that! And enough with the questions! I need names Anna! Names!'

He he, I love getting her frustrated! 'Um, what's a good girls name?' ooh, scary face. 'Ok, ok, what about Emerald?'

'Too corny.'

'Sapphire?'

She raised her eyebrows.

'Oh fine, um, Tinkerbell?'

'No.'

'Why not?'

'Because Tinkerbell was a fairy, fairies are small, dragons are big. Can you tell the difference between big and little?'

I glared at her. 'Cinderella?'

'Yeah, that'll do.'

'Nah, I'm calling her Tinkerbell.'

Tinkerbell was just like Tinkerbell in Peter Pan.

She was an annoying little flirt. She jumped around and spurted fire and ran away all the time. She ran up to all the boy baby dragons and flirted like crazy. She was the dragon version of Tilly.

'Hopefully you have named your dragons, now its time to feed them,' I'm beginning to really hate this guy. Hasn't he heard of OHS (**A/N:** its Occupational Health and Safety, my primary school teacher used to rave about it all the time)? 'Now if you come up the front here, there are bottles of mix, especially made for baby dragons.'

'And what, is there a market for this crap?' I heard Sirius mutter to James.

'It would appear so,' James replied.

'You usually cannot buy dragon mix for baby dragons in the UK, as it is illegal -'

'So why are we looking after them again?' I muttered.

'- but it's not illegal in some parts of the world where you can get a licence to keep dragons, places like Australia and America where there is lots of space for them, but we have special permission for this class,' Kettleburn said.

'Lucky us,' Hayley muttered.

'Now, like I said, come up the front and collect a bottle of dragon mix,' we all slowly, one by one, trudged up the front to collect a bottle of the putrid smelling, unnatural coloured, with small bits floating on the top, bottle of dragon mix and went back to our dragons.

I made a grab for it. It snapped at me. So I tried again, and it tried to bite me again, so going along the lines of 'if at first you don't succeed, try, try again,' that only led me to actually being bitten. I could see the little creature in front of me. I glared at it and looked it straight in the eye, and grabbed it quickly forcing it still between my legs until finally I could feed it. I looked around; I could see practically everyone else struggling.

That was the day I stopped doubting teachers threats. When that long and agonizing class was finally over we all went up to the hall, nursing our bruised and battered limbs to eat.

'You know, I don't think I'm ever going to doubt a teacher ever again,' Hayley said.

'I'll second that,' I said.

'I'll third that,' Matilda, James and Sirius all said at once.

'I am so not in the mood for charms,' I said. 'I'm going to the hospital wing, see ya.' I scooted off to the hospital hoping to miss out on class.

'Um excuse me, um, I have a few bites and scratches from baby dragons, and I'm worried that they'll get infected, can you have a look at them?' I asked sweetly.

The nurse looked at my hand, 'hmm, how come you were handling baby dragons?'

'In Care of Magical Creatures class,' I told her.

'Well, at such a young age they shouldn't have much venom in them, but still,' she handed me a cup with a potion in it, 'drink this, I'll bandage them.'

I took the cup, the potion was foul tasting, but all thoughts aside.

'Would you mind if you could go around and get the remainder of your class so they can be fixed up,' she said.

I went to the Charms room first, gathered some of the class, then to various other rooms.

'Uh, Anna, how are we supposed to practise Quidditch this afternoon with bandaged hands?' Hayley asked. There was a tight schedule, we could only train at certain times, and we can't change, so what are we supposed to do?

'We'll ask the nurse,' I replied.

After everyone had their potion, and a few bandages, she told us all not to worry, we could take the bandages off in a couple of hours so all was fine.

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**Again, sorry it's so short, but as I said before I've been really busy. And I'm so stressed and everything, I need a little happiness in my life, so to make me happy and less-stressed, review. **


	12. Pink Dye

**Hey, hey, hey. Oh my god, the summer holidays! Woohoo! Two months of no school. Its so awesome because in Queensland we're finished and New South Wales don't finish for another three weeks, and I have heaps of friends there cause I used to live there and they're all still at school. It's so awesome.

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**

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. The All Hallow's verse Hogwarts is tomorrow. I'm going nuts. I can't believe it. Tomorrow I have to verse my boyfriend in Quidditch. Tomorrow if I lose I have to do a streak – not that that's going to happen – and today, we're going to Hogsmead for a sort of last get together and arrangements of the bet and such.

'Anna, what are you wearing today?' Matilda asked from her shower.

'I dunno, jeans, t-shirt, I'm not in the mood for dressing up today,' I replied.

'Yeah, well I'm going to wear…' Matilda's clothing descriptions are to boring to describe. She just rambles on and on and on. And today I'm in one of those really lazy moods when all you want to do is sleep and eat and watch TV. Of course I can't watch TV because this school doesn't have one.

'I'm out, see ya,' I say to Matilda who is currently singing.

'See ya!' she shouts. It echo's really bad in here and I can hear her singing all the way up the hallway.

'Is that Matilda again?' Johnno asked me as I passed him.

'Yup, terrible isn't it?' I replied grinning.

'You going into Hogsmead?' he asked.

'Yeah, everyone is, we're gonna meet up with the Hogwarts team, to arrange the bet and everything,' I told him.

'Bet? What bet?' Johnno asked puzzled. Shit, I haven't exactly told everyone, I am in so much trouble.

'I'll tell you at breakfast,' I said.

''Kay,' he replied walking back out to the common room.

I pulled on my jeans, which I had worn yesterday afternoon, but no one needs to know that, and my t-shirt, which was relatively clean, and finished it off with a nice belt to make it look like I at least like I made an attempt to look good.

'Anna! Mail for you!' Avery tossed a package up to me.

'Oh yeah! Mum's hair dye, hey Matilda, when do you wanna dye your hair?' I asked her.

'Tonight?' she asked.

'Sure, whatever, what colour?'

'Umm, pink… and blue,' she said.

Me and Hayley rolled her eyes, Mum had included a bottle of this stuff that gets rid of the dye in seconds as well. She knows Matilda well. I picked up the letter she had written me:

_Hey Anna,_

_I'm so proud of you! I think your next game is on Sunday, huh? Well do you know if you make it too the finals (which I'm pretty sure you will) all the seventh and sixth years get to come up to watch, and your family too. Also you do realise in about a weeks time, all you seventh years have to come back to All Hallows for your final exams? But don't worry, they only last for a week, and then you'll have your graduation ceremony, and you can go back to Hogwarts, and you won't have to go to classes either. But I think you still have to wear your uniform._

_Congratulations on giving that Keeper a concussion, I think when you've graduated, I'll be able to talk Rhett for you. Avery was saying how he wants to be a healer for the St Mungo's in Sydney-_

Avery wants to be a healer? You learn something new everyday.

_-so I don't really need to talk to anyone about that, there's a special course that he'll take if-_

Blah blah blah, boring stuff, I skipped down a few lines to:

_Now tell me more about this Sirius guy. Have you hooked up with him yet? Now Anna, I know it must be hard for you to have a relationship with your competition, so when something happens, try not to get a broken heart, eg. If you beat them at Quidditch, he might get heaps jealous and stop talking to you and break up with you. But he sounds like a wonderful boy._

_Anna, I know it must be hard that your brother kissed your best friend, I'll send him a letter and you should talk about it with them, I remember I stopped talking to my sister when she first hooked up with your uncle, I was devastated he was best friend at the time-_

Boring, doesn't she know me and Hayley are over it already? And that Hayley and Avery have semi-moved on?

_Heres the dye, I've also included some anti-dye treatment so when Matilda is over it (give her a day at least) it'll come out straight away._

_Anna I wouldn't worry about Mr. Pryor, he's a loser, detentions here don't count to anything to don't worry._

_Love always,_

_Mum_

_xoxo_

Woohoo! Mum called Mr Pryor a loser!

'Look, Mum called Mr Pryor a loser!' I shouted over to Avery. He, Rory, Johnno and Harley burst into laughter.

'Your Mum's awesome I love her,' Rory said.

'Yeah, but not because she's awesome,' I said back.

'Now Anna, you have to tell us all about this bet,' Johnno said.

'Ah… yes… now, I made this little bet with James that whoever loses tomorrow has to…' they all looked at me, 'do a streak around the lake… please don't kill me.'

'Don't worry, we won't. I'm not planning on letting us lose, now lets go to Hogsmead, James and co have already gone down,' Harley said.

'Oh how rude, leave me behind,' I said.

'Anna, get over it,' Rory said to me.

I gave him the finger, 'Rory, shut up.'

I love hanging out with all these guys, they're awesome and my best friends ever. Just add the rest of the group who are back at All Hallows and we have the best time together ever.

We all sat in the Three Broomsticks around a couple of tables pushed together drinking butterbeer, normally we would be drinking fire whiskey, but we decided no alcoholic beverages when we're in competition, until we've won.

'It is so cold for October,' Avery said.

'That would be because it's almost winter here, and we're in Scotland,' I said to him.

'I thought we were in England,' Matilda said.

'Hogwarts is in Scotland, I thought everyone knew that,' Johnno said.

'Yeah, remember we had a little history session of the schools we were competing against, as well as our own,' Harley said.

'Who can forget that? _All Hallows was founded in some random year, when Brisbane was built and the only time it has come to near destruction was during the Brisbane floods, and that was, last year_,' Rory said imitating our History teacher.

'I remember those floods, they came right up into the hall, and into the canteen, and we were stuck in the dorms,' I said.

'Yeah, that was pretty cool, everyone was like _'so we can withstand attacks by evil wizards, but we can't withstand floods,'_' Hayley said.

'What are you talking about?' James said coming over and pulling up a chair.

'When our school got flooded last year,' I said casually.

'How does a magic school get flooded?' Sirius asked.

'Well, when it rains heaps the river overflows and then it's also raining everywhere else so the river is rising, and then the school eventually floods? Get it?' I said.

'Ha, ha,' he said.

'So are we gonna arrange this bet?' James asked.

'What's to arrange? We already know, the Hogwarts – okay the losing team has to do a streak around the lake,' I said.

'And whose brilliant idea was this?' Mitchell Bell asked; he was one of the Chasers on the Hogwarts team.

'Why, scared of losing?' Hayley taunted.

'No, I just want to know who came up with it,' he replied.

'Easy, him,' I said pointing at James.

'It so was not, it was so her,' he pointed at me.

'Was not.'

'Was too.'

'Not.'

'Too.'

'Shut up, it doesn't matter whose idea it was, it matters when we're going to do it,' Hayley said.

'Right,' we both said.

'Well, it's pretty obvious when we're going to do it,' Sirius said. We all looked at him, 'after the game. Duh.'

'You look so stupid when you say 'duh' so never say it again,' I said.

'Ooh, harsh,' Avery said.

I gave him one of those looks.

'Well the game's tomorrow morning, so we've gotta have the bet before the winner's party, and everything, so yeah,' I said.

'You sounded dumb when you said that, don't ever say that again,' Sirius said.

'Are you mocking me?' I asked.

'Me? Mock? Never, I was just… summing up,' he grinned.

'How long do we have until this afternoons game?' Harley asked.

'I dunno, it's on at twelve, so we've got like an hour or so,' Luke, another Hogwarts Chaser said.

'Does anyone know who's playing?' Matilda asked.

'Yeah, Serefina and Beauxbaton's,' James replied.

'Serefina and Beauxbaton's! That is so not good! Who am I going to go for?' she directed this question at me and Hayley.

'Er, which ever when has hotter guys?' Hayley said trying to keep a straight face.

'You know I'd hate it if that's what you place all your bets on, which ever team has better looking guys,' Sirius said.

'Why? Because we reckon we're going to win?' I said, instantly taking it back. 'Avery, I'm not saying your hot either.'

'I didn't say you were, in fact, I didn't say anything,' he said keeping a straight face.

'You didn't need to,' I replied.

'Well, is everything settled?' Rory asked.

'Yup, think so, well is three are off, we'll see youse all later,' Hayley said, and the three of us, Hayley, Matilda and I, left heading up somewhere.

* * *

'So who am I going to go for? Serefina – that has Seth – or Beauxbatons who have Laurent?' Matilda asked.

We were sitting in a cute little café, and it wasn't the one Matilda wandered up to sometime yesterday when she snuck out with some guy from Durmstrang. Might I add he didn't speak much English either so she probably fed him some I'll conceived story.

'I thought you were going out with Remus?' I asked.

'Yeah, me too,' Hayley said.

Matilda laughed. 'Remus?' she laughed even more. 'Why would you think that?'

'Uh… because you were always off together someplace or another,' I said.

Matilda laughed some more, 'he was helping me study. You do realise in about a week or so we go back to Hallows for our exams and graduation?'

'But – you, and him – and… oh never mind,' Hayley said.

'What happened to your plan of getting someone who would never go out with you?' I asked.

'Oh it's still in motion, I have my eyes set on someone else though,' she said taking a sip of her green tea.

'Right then… who is it?' Hayley asked.

'Harley,' she replied simply.

'Harley?' Hayley and I said unison.

'Yeah, don't sound so surprised,' she said.

'Well… why Harley?' I asked.

'Well, he'd never go out with me because we've known each other nearly all our lives, so he would never think of me that way,' me and Hayley both gave her dumb looks that clearly said, 'please tell us more, we have no idea what your going on about because you sound like a raving lunatic.' 'Well, you see this way when I finally win him, I also win someone who's extremely hot.'

'Uh… right…' Hayley said.

'Moving on now,' I added.

'So Matilda, what's with the green tea?' Hayley asked.

'Well, it's extremely good for you, it helps flush out bad toxins, and its great for your skin, and the Chinese, or maybe it's the Japanese, doesn't matter, have been using it for thousands of years as a healing drink. Unlike that coffee of yours that stains your teeth,' she said. (A/N: I have nothing against Chinese or Japanese, my auntie is Japanese, and if that above comment has offended some people, I'm sending my sorry now.)

'One word for you Tilly,' I said. 'Bleach.'

'Bleach is- ' Hayley's hand went over Matilda's mouth.

'We don't care Tilly, if you have a problem with bleach, use peroxide,' she said.

Matilda rolled her eyes, 'come on, lets get up to school, I want to dye my hair before the game.'

Hayley and I rolled eyes, 'okay come on.'

'So… whose attention are you trying to grab with pink hair?' Hayley asked.

'No ones, well maybe Harley's, but that's about it,' she said.

'Come on, let's go,' I said.

It took us about twenty minutes to get up to school, and then we ran straight to our 'dorm' and Matilda went quickly to wash her hair.

'Have you told her about the anti-dye stuff?' Hayley asked.

'No, I thought if it looks like shit we let her walk around with it for a day before telling her we have it,' I said.

'That's what I was thinking,' Hayley said.

'Do you reckon she'll go through with it?' I asked.

'Yeah… or maybe no… she might change it so like only half of its dyed or something,' Hayley replied.

'Yeah, she'd probably do that,' I said.

We just burst into laughter, 'can I have your _Cosmo_ mag?' Hayley asked.

Me and Mum read the muggle magazines all the time, we like to keep up with the fashions so we don't look weird like some magic folk who go out in cloaks and pyjama's and stuff. We also get the witch magazines; they're usually just a magic version of stuff like _Cosmo_ and _Cleo_ anyway.

'Uh, yeah I think it's under my bed, I have the new _Voodoo Doll_ mag if you want to read it,' it's the magic _Cosmo_.

'Thanks,' Hayley said flicking through _Cosmo_, ahh, don't you love that mag? We love reading those sex tips, god they have the strangest things in there. I remember reading it out to everyone on the way to 'Wet 'n' Wild' on our picnic day at the end of last year. Good times, good times.

'I'm ready!' Matilda came tearing into our room.

'Good, so are we,' Hayley said.

'So are you sure you want to go through with this?' I asked.

'Yes…' she said slowly.

'You don't sound so sure of yourself,' Hayley said without looking up from her magazine.

'Well… how about you only do the under half? That way if it looks bad I've still got the top half…' she said.

'You sure?' I asked.

'Yes,' she replied.

'Super sure?' Hayley said.

'Shut up Hayley,' we both said.

'Yes sir,' she said grinning.

'Actually, do the whole thing pink,' she said confidently.

* * *

**woohoo another chappie done! now please review im in a shitty mood. i just got back from the city right and i rock up to the gate to my house and coreys just leaving and i go 'is Mum home?' and he goes, 'no she and alyce went out chrissy shopping for emma' cos emmas still at school u see only private highschools are out, and i go 'ok is the house unlocked?' and he goes 'yeh it is' so i go up and i get there the front doors locked and the only window open is coreys and his is the highest off the ground, like twice my height up so i run back down to the ferry hoping that coreys still there, but no the city cat is just leaving and i can c him waving to me out the front - dick. so i got dads ladder adn climbed through his window and now im listening to my new kisschasy album in peace and quiet. and when im finished this im going to go steal some of his cds and drop them in the pool.**

**love always caitlin**

**xoxo**


	13. Hallows vs Hogwarts

**You know what I just realised? That this story is set around the 70s, so if anyone could tell me some things from the 70s, classic stuff that everyone knows so I can try and include them. I've got a nice little list down the bottom. I'd just like to say I do not, have the same views as Anna on ABBA music, sure I, like many other people my age know all the lyrics, but that is because we all have mothers who grew up in love with them and have all their CDs.

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**

I woke up. It was still fairly dark and I was feeling slightly sick. I looked around at my surroundings and couldn't recognise them, everything had a sort of medieval look towards it, then I remembered I wasn't at Hallows anymore and I was at Hogwarts. I was going to be versing Hogwarts in round about five hours. I felt sick; I knew that if we won Sirius would probably get really jealous and stop talking to me. Or did he tell me himself? I can't remember. But I can remember Matilda's debut with her pink hair. People pointing and laughing at her. Of course she didn't actually realise they were laughing at her since there are lots of students laughing around here all the time.

I got up and decided to see if I could drown myself in the shower. I sang ABBA songs reciting most of the album which I knew by heart belting my personal favourite _Dancing Queen. _I can't wait to get home, and be able to listen to the radio and watch TV again. Sure some of the stuff off the WWN is okay, but I prefer Muggle music. Wins every time, even Avery likes it.

'ANNA! WOULD YOU SHUT UP!' Avery yelled down the corridor. 'IT'S ONLY SIX AM! SOME PEOPLE LIKE TO SLEEP AROUND HERE!'

Wow. I've been in the shower for an hour, personal record and I think I bet Matilda – maybe, or not. I bet they had a conversation in his room about who would tell me to shut up. And seeing as I'm Avery's sister he got tasked with the job.

'YOU CAN DANCE, YOU CAN JIVE, HAVING THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE, OOH SEE THAT GIRL, WATCH THAT SCENE, DIGGING THE DANCING QUEEN!' I yelled back to him singing.

I could hear him coming towards the bathroom.

'Don't hex me! Do you want to lose today?' I shrieked.

He muttered. Ha, he was going to hex me. Evil twin brother.

'Well shut up, do you want us to lose because we're all dead tired?' Avery asked loudly.

'Fine, I'm getting out now anyway,' I said turning the water off. 'Is it just me or is it freezing here?'

'It's freezing,' he replied. 'God, I just realised. Next week we have to go back for a week for our final exams and graduation.'

'Holy shit! You're right!' I can't believe it. In a fortnight I'm going to be graduating. And then even though we'll still be here, we won't have to attend classes. 'That is so cool.'

'We'll be official wizards,' Avery said grinning.

'Oh shit. One problem, we'll miss Schoolies being here,' just because we're magic, doesn't mean we can't go to Schoolies.

'Meh, we can always go when New South Wales are there, they finish a few weeks after us, December I think,' he said.

'Hm, I dunno, but I'm going to change into my Quidditch robes,' I said going into my room.

I quickly changed and looked at the sleeping forms of my friends on the beds. I ran up to Hayley's bed and jumped on her.

'Boo!' I shouted in her ear.

'Fuck! Anna! What time is it?' she practically screamed.

'Tut, tut, tut, Hayley you know better than to swear, and scream it out to,' I said getting off her bed.

'Anna, what time is it?' she asked again.

'Eight A.M.,' I lied. I didn't want to go to breakfast on my own.

She groaned and rolled out of bed and went to have her shower. I then repeated this process on Matilda.

'Hey Tilly, hows your hair?' I asked jumping on her.

'Huh? What time is it?' she asked.

'How's your hair?' I repeated.

'Oh, I dunno, I haven't seen it yet. What time is it?' she asked again.

'Eight A.M.,' I said completely the same as when I told Hayley.

'Oh shit! We're versing Hogwarts today!' she said jumping up.

I clapped for her.

'That means I'm against James…' she said.

'Tilly, James has a girlfriend, Lily, remember?' I said taping her head.

'Oh… yeah… but then, you're against Sirius aren't you?' she asked.

'Yup,' she just deflated all my happiness. If I had a balloon filled with happiness, just like a Helium balloon, she just came along with a sharp little pin named 'Sirius' and popped it.

There was a nice little sentimental moment of silence before-

'ANNA I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! IT'S ONLY SIX THIRTY!' Hayley said landing on me in her Quidditch gear.

'Oops,' I said laughing.

'I hate you,' Matilda said before covering her head with her pillow and trying to go back to sleep with me and Hayley wrestling on top of her.

'Well you can't go back to bed now,' I said cheerfully to Hayley.

She stuck her tongue out and gave me the finger.

'Love you too,' I said. 'Let's go to breakfast.'

'Isn't it a tad early?' Hayley asked.

'If you can suggest something much more fun…' I said looking at her with my big, blue eyes.

'How about we go down to breakfast?' she suggested.

'Oh what a brilliant plan,' I mocked, 'maybe we should get Sleeping Beauty up first though.'

I pointed at Matilda. Hayley gave me an evil grin which I returned. We went out to the corridor so she couldn't hear our treacherous plans.

'What have you got in mind?' I asked grinning. Hayley is the brains around here for evil plans.

'Oh, do you remember in fourth year how we continually poured cold water on her when she was in the shower?' Hayley asked. I don't want to know where this is going. But it was funny all the same.

'Yup, who doesn't? Those screams haunted everybody's heads for a long, long time. Didn't the teachers think Death Eaters had attacked the school?' I said remembering how much trouble she had got in for screaming so loud.

'Oh just a simple matter of pouring cold water on her while she's asleep,' she said.

'Ingenious, we'll get in so much shit, but hey, we need some fun in our lives,' I replied.

So we went off to the bathroom, found a bucket (this place has everything) and filled it up with cold water and basically chucked it all over our dear pink-headed, sleeping beauty.

'Jesus! Who did that?' Matilda screeched getting up.

Hayley and I ran as fast as we could to the Great Hall. We got there; and as per-usual there was heaps of food, only there weren't as many people since it was so early.

'Mm, this food is really good when there aren't heaps of people throwing it around at you,' Hayley said, 'we should get down here early everyday.'

I gave her one of those looks that says 'don't even think about it'.

'Fine, I'll come with…' Hayley scanned the room looking for someone to come down to an early breakfast with, 'I'll sleep in.'

'Who is up this time of day?' I looked around the only people our age were the Slytherin's Sirius warned me about.

'Losers,' Hayley said trying to fit as much bagel in her mouth at once.

'You're calling us losers,' I said in a faux horrified voice.

She laughed, 'okay, everybody but us. But anywho, we're never usually up this early.'

'You are so stuck up,' I said chucking a piece of bacon at her.

'I thought you liked it this time because no one was throwing food?' she asked me.

'No, that was you,' I retorted.

We sat down there on our lonesome talking, so people came down, said hi and stuff, but we couldn't remember their names, people mainly from other schools and in our classes. And heaps of people said good luck, they were mainly people from other schools, the Hogwarts people mainly said, 'ready to lose?'

And naturally we said back, 'we're ready if you are.'

That got them a little pissed.

'Hey,' it was Lily.

'Hey,' Hayley and I said at the same time.

'Don't tell James this,' Lily began, 'but I would like it if you won to deflate that huge head of his, it'd do Sirius good to.'

Hayley and I laughed.

'Ooh, going for the opposition are you?' I said.

'Pretty much, yeah,' Lily said grinning.

'How you feeling?' Tamara asked joining them after saying good morning to Pierre.

'Oh you know same old, same old. Who are you going for?' I asked.

'Hogwarts, but it would be nice to see James and Sirius lose for once in their lives, to get the point they're only human,' Tamara shrugged.

'You mean to say they've never lost a game?' I choked.

'Precisely,' Tamara said.

'Tamara! I didn't want to tell them that! I didn't want them to get nervous!' Lily hissed.

'They're that good huh?' Hayley said queasily.

'Don't worry, theirs a first time for everything,' Tamara said cheerfully.

There was silence from both Hayley and I.

'Oh don't be stupid, you're all great flyers, we've seen you, you're equally as good as them,' Lily said, 'James is slightly blind out of his left eye, so if you fly to the left of him you'll have a better chance.'

'JAMES IS BLIND?' I accidentally yelled out. Pure accidental I swear.

'No! His sight just isn't as good as his right eye, I mean, he does wear glasses,' Lily said getting annoyed that I yelled that out.

'Oh yeah, so if I Bludger his glasses he won't be able to see…' I said thoughtfully.

'Don't tell him I told you,' Lily said.

'Not a word,' Hayley grinned.

'Can't wait to tell Matilda,' I said.

'Yeah, just make sure she can tell the difference between left and right,' Tamara said.

'She's not _that_ dumb,' Hayley said, 'just a little… lost.'

We all burst into laughter. We are such bitches aye?

'Well, well, well, having your last meal?' it was James, you'd be expecting we were going to have a full out wizard duel.

'Well actually they're having breakfast,' said Lily.

'Ha ha, good morning to you too,' James said kissing her on the cheek. I'm so jealous of those two. I mean, they're at the same school, and not competing against each other not like-

'Hello, hello, hello! Introducing the one and only Sirius Black,' he said coming in the hall. 'Yes, we are going to slaughter All Hallows,' he said bowing. Many people laughed, the Slytherins shook their heads, and I just rolled my eyes.

'You, Mister Black, are a loser,' I said.

'Good morning Miss McKeller,' he said, 'what's your opinion on losing?'

What is he? A talk show host? You know, I think losing would do him good.

'The same as yours, I don't lose,' I said cross. I'm really sick of him going on about Hogwarts winning and the other team losing.

'You upset about something?' he asked, it was hard to tell if he was sincere or not.

'Okay, yes I am upset about something, but I'm not telling,' I said on the brink of shouting. Hayley I noticed moved cautiously away. Smart girl she is, smart girl.

Sirius was silent for a moment while he heaped food onto his plate.

'Are you upset that you're going to lose?' he asked keeping a straight face.

'ENOUGH WITH THE "HA HA, YOU'RE GOING TO LOSE!" IT'S DUMB! IT'S JUVINILE! AND I'M SICK OF IT! WE ARE NOT GOING TO LOSE! GET OVER YOURSELF SIRIUS BLACK! NO ONE LIKES A GLOATING WINNER!' I screamed out for the whole hall to hear.

'ANNA MCKELLER! DETENTION! DO NOT SHOUT IN THE HALL!' Mr Pryor shouted out at me. Hypocrite. That's teachers for you; they're all a bunch of bloody hypocrites.

I glared at him and stormed out. I was really getting sick of being told we were going to lose.

I went down to the Quidditch stadium into our change rooms and then realised that I didn't have my broom, because I was intending on staying there until the game. So I stormed back to my room, making sure I didn't look relaxed and happy to anyone that passed.

I entered our dorm some people asked me something but I ignored them and then grabbed my broom.

'Anna are you –' Matilda began.

'Don't want to talk about it,' I said crossly and continued on my way.

I was back at the stadium before I knew it. I sat alone for a while, thinking about how shocked Sirius' face was. Served him right; that arrogant son of a bitch.

I'm a little depressed though that he didn't come after me like last time, but then do I really want to talk to him?

'Anna?' it was Hayley.

Ikept my mouth shut.

Hayley knew me better than anyone in the world. She opened the door and came in.

'You know, ever since you came here, you've been the biggest drama Queen ever,' she said laughing. 'You know, running off after you've screamed at people.'

I laughed, if someone other than Hayley said that to me, I would have screamed at them and like she said, run off. But I couldn't do that Hayley.

'Sirius is really upset you know,' she said softly.

'Don't care,' I said, 'he should have thought about it before he kept going on about that we were going to lose.'

Hayley laughed, how can she laugh at a time like this? 'He was only joking. I know it was a bit annoying, but you did it heaps too.'

That I hate. When people point out that I'm contradicting myself. That's me, Anna McKeller, walking contradiction and professional drama queen.

'Yeah… but I was only saying it after he said it,' I said defending myself.

Hayley sighed; I bet she's going to become a psychiatrist.

'Anna, you're throwing away something gold,' she said.

Gold? Sirius ain't gold, he's old. If I had a list of things that were gold and things that were old, the top of the gold list would be my mum and the old would Sirius.

'What do you want me to do?'

'Talk to him…' she was going to say apologise, I just knew it.

'I'm not apologising to him,' I said stiffly.

'Anna…'

'No! He had it coming! He only had himself to blame!' I said quoting the Broadway Musical _Chicago_.

'Anna you're being ridiculous. You're acting like a child,' she said.

'Me? Please, that is so Black,' I said not using his first name.

Hayley stared at me.

'What?' I said innocently. 'What's the time?'

Hayley looked at her watch, 'time for people to start turning up. Oh my god! I need to go get my broom!'

And she ran off the same direction that I had stormed off in earlier.

'Anna, what did you do?' it was Matilda.

'Tilly, I don't want to talk about it,' I said dramatically. If Hayley's right that I'm a drama queen, I may as well live up to it.

'Why did you yell at Sirius?' she asked.

'So you _do_ know what I did?' I asked.

'Anna you're being stupid,' she said.

'Oh I'm being stupid? I'm not the one who goes around saying "oh la de da, we're going to win, you're going to lose. Ha, ha, ha",' I said prancing around the changing room.

'Anna! Stop it! He was so upset!' Matilda said shouting at me. And let me tell you, when Matilda gets angry, she gets angry.

'That's not my problem!' I shouted back at her.

'Guys! Shut up!' Harley yelled at us. 'God, we're on in a minute. Where's Hayley?'

'Here,' she said panting holding up her broom.

'Ready?' Harley asked.

'Yeah… oh guys, Lily said that James can't see as good out of his left eye as he can out of his right eye,' I announced.

'Really? Good tip,' Harley said, 'Matilda, when you see him aiming for the snitch fly from his left side. McKellers, aim bludgers at his left side preferably.'

Avery and I nodded. McKellers, that's what Harley calls Avery and I when he's referring to both of us.

'Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you All Hallows!' the person on the speaker called out. Hopefully it wasn't that Ethan Shaw prick like last week. 'Johnson, Quinn, Ballard, Wilson, McKeller, McKeller, and Roberts!'

We all flew out onto the pitch, Hogwarts where already out there. I was directly opposite Sirius – I mean Black – he looked at me nervously (I think I was glaring at him) and smiled. I could hear Matilda's voice in my head _Anna! Stop it! He was so upset! _I sent a fake smile back at him. Hang on, that's not a smile, that's a smirk, or maybe it is a smile-

'The Quaffle is released and the game begins! Ballard takes it, then Quinn, to Johnson, back to Ballard…'

I decided that it would be best to tune out from that and search for the Bludgers and start whacking people, preferably Hogwarts. I had my trusty bat and saw a Bludger zooming around the Hogwarts scoring end, I went as fast as my Cleansweep could take me, I aimed at one of the Hogwarts Chasers, and sure enough I knocked him off his broom. One down, six to go.

Forty minutes into the game and I had no idea what the score was, the guy I had knocked out was back up and had scored a goal, but his vision was slightly askew. I aimed another Bludger at James, but he managed to swerve. He laughed and gave me the finger, which I returned straight back to him.

Another twenty or so minutes later and then I saw what everybody knew would be the decider of the game, James and the pink-headed Matilda (pretty easy to see her now) speeding towards the Snitch, a Bludger came hurtling in my direction, I saw a grinning Sirius Black behind it, I gave him the finger and I aimed my bat at the Bludger and at James' head, when the bat came in contact with the Bludger, it came at such a force I heard a crack in my arm and a sharp pain, and I'm pretty sure my bat just broke as I plummeted to the earth, but I ignored it, the Bludger had changed course and sped towards James, hitting him in the head, James fell and Matilda grabbed the snitch.

And the game was over. Just like that. We returned to the ground, our team celebrating. I picked up my bat, I was glad that it was in one piece. I love my bat. The score was five hundred to three hundred and eighty. We all hugged Matilda and were screaming as she held up the Snitch.

'And All Hallows wins! Five hundred to three hundred and eighty!' Ethan's voice chorused over the pitch.

I looked over at the Hogwarts team, James was still lying on the ground, unconscious it seemed. God, I have the worst conscience. Sirius was by his side keeping people away as one of the teachers took him to the hospital wing.

'Is he okay?' I asked Sirius as they passed us.

'What do you think? You hit him in the head with a Bludger!' Sirius snapped.

'Hey, I was only asking,' I glared at him.

'Well stay out of it, it's your fault he's like this, you could have killed him!' Sirius yelled.

'God Sirius! It's just a game!' I shouted at him. 'What did you expect me to do? Aim the Bludger back at you and let you win? I don't think so! I came here to win, not lose!'

'That's all you care about isn't it? Winning!' he spat.

'Jeez, that's rich coming from you,' I yelled.

'Okay, that's enough, Miss McKeller, you might want to go to the Hospital Wing, that arm looks broken.

I nodded and then went back to the team and shot a glance back at Sirius who had turned his back to me and followed his friend up to the school.

'Hayley, wanna come to the hospital with me? My arms broken,' I said.

'Sure,' she said.

'Oi guys! Where are you going?' Johnno shouted out.

'Hospital Wing. Anna's broken her arm,' Hayley shouted back. The rest of the team followed us up there.

The Hospital Wing was quiet. Sirius was ignoring me, and the rest of the team, and James was completely out cold. Shit I feel heaps bad now. No, I will not let Sirius make me feel like shit, it's the rules of the game! The rest of the Hogwarts team were all right with it, _they_ understood that it was a game and each team intended on winning.

* * *

When I was fixed up, my arm no longer broken, we all trooped back to the common room singing the Australian National Anthem, and chanting: 'Ozzy! Ozzy! Ozzy! Oi! Oi! Oi!' and then we finished with a little 'Waltzing Matilda,' which our own Matilda led the chorus with. Most of us had gone to Muggle primary schools before starting at All Hallows so we all had sat through hours of compulsory choir and singing and music lessons.

'Toasts!' Rory yelled out holding up a butterbeer. Everyone cheered.

'To Matilda! The best Seeker in the world!' Hayley and I cried out. Everyone cheered and it was hard to tell where her hairline finished and her face began, as they were practically the same shade.

'Anna!' Matilda called out. 'I wouldn't have been able to get the Snitch past James if you hadn't have belted him out with that superb hit with the Bludger!'

'To Anna!' They all called out. I felt sick.

I grinned and as the boys and Hayley began a competition to see who could don the most butterbeers I slipped outside and down to the lake.

* * *

I knew this would happen. I knew it. Sirius was a pigheaded, stuck up, arrogant… everything! God all he cared about was winning, and now he refuses to talk to me because I beat him at Quidditch. Probably the only thing he's good at.

'Anna, what's wrong?' Hayley asked sitting down next to me. I was sitting next to the lake, just staring out at the rippling, black surface.

I didn't need to say anything. I was crying. Again. I'm hopeless like that. I cry all the time when things don't go my way.

'Anna, it's okay,' she said putting her arms around.

'God, I can't believe him, one thing goes wrong – on his behalf – he can't take me beating him! He…' I couldn't continue I just kept crying.

'Do you remember when we first came to All Hallows?' she asked, 'that first day and they were taking our pictures for our I.D. cards. And we were in the library.'

'Yeah, you just came up out of the blue and introduced yourself,' I said smiling.

'Yeah, and then after that we sat next to each other everyday in Care Class,' she said smiling.

'Everyday for the last seven years,' I said.

'God, things have changed,' she said, 'you were heaps shy then.'

'Yeah, and I had the rattiest hair around, remember? We used to wear our hair out everyday, and it was all ratty and poofy,' I laughed.

'Hey, we thought it looked good!' Hayley protested.

'Yeah… then we met Matilda in second year, and her group adopted us and fixed our hair… and my shyness,' I said.

Hayley laughed, 'let's go inside, it's freezing out here,' she suggested. I nodded in agreement and followed her upstairs. We had our arms linked and we were laughing and remembering all those good times. As Hayley likes to put it: we were young and dumb.

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**TBC

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**

**Aww, sad chappie, and it gets worse… dun dun dun… I should make a soapie out of this… Wow this chapter is really long – well by my standards, 12 pages… thanks for reviews! Hugs all around. How many days to chrissy now? Okay so it's the 10th of December, that means there's… 15 sleeps? Or is it 14? Somebody tell me!**

**xoxo**


	14. It's Over!

**Maha! New chappie! Enjoy! And I'm going to do another exclamation mark cause I feel like it! Happy New Year!**

**Hey Tamara my little Grasshopper, this chapter is for you!

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**

It was Monday, and Sirius still wasn't talking to me. I figured that if he couldn't take losing, well that was his loss. We've sort of unofficially broken up due to the fact that we haven't spoken to each other, and our groups haven't spoken. Lily and Tamara are still talking to us though, they said, and I quote, 'serves him (Sirius) right, Anna, you can do way better than him. If he's going to act like such a stuck up prick you should break up with him,' Tamara said that, and I love her for it, it makes me feel better about myself.

I felt awkward sitting at the Gryffindor table this morning. Sirius, James, Remus, Rat-Face (a.k.a. Peter), Avery, Harley, Rory and Johnno were sitting up the end near the door. So why was Sirius talking to them. Oh that's right, they didn't nearly kill James, he looks alright to me, and he's just got a bandage around his head. Hayley, Matilda, Lily, Tamara and most of the All Hallows team were up our end, near the teachers table. I looked down the table – I couldn't help myself, I had to see what he was doing, I made sure I was glaring, just in case he looked my way. He was talking to Faith Waldock. I don't believe it! I thought she liked Avery! That bitch – she's probably moved on since Hayley and Avery became an item.

I was literally growling as I shoved toast in my mouth, causing honey to spread all over my face.

'Anna… are you okay?' Hayley asked nervously.

'Fine, peachy, lovely, can you pass me a napkin?' Hayley threw one at me and I wiped my face. 'Need coffee. Matilda could you pass the boiling water.'

Matilda and Hayley swapped nervous looks.

'I'm not going to tip it on Black!' wait – now I think about it, it doesn't sound like a bad idea.

'No! I mean, of course you're not,' Matilda said nervously and handed me the jug of water.

I poured myself a coffee, I think there's some fact that you shouldn't drink coffee when you're angry, because it makes you do stupid things, but I always do stupid things so it doesn't matter.

'Hey Anna, we have training this afternoon, during Potions,' Harley said when I was on my way to Transfiguration.

'Oh thank god, I was worried I'd have to sit at a desk with Si- Black,' I said correcting myself.

'Um, right,' he said, 'well… uh… I have, a, um, message for you from Sirius.'

My eye twitched, damn coffee. Damn Black! So he didn't have the guts to talk to me himself.

'What is it?'

'Well… uh…' my eye twitched again with my impatience and annoyance.

'Harley spill!' I almost shouted, but there was a hint of anger in my voice.

'Uh… maybe you should talk to him yourself,' he said. He's probably worried I'd hit him.

'Right…' I said, I sat down at the table next to Hayley and Harley was sitting nervously on my other side. I kept sending the coldest looks I could muster in Sirius' way. I've decided that at the end of the lesson I will break up with. Officially, and I won't be an idiot for not talking to him, he will be the loser who couldn't break up with his girlfriend.

Damn, wish he gave me some sort of present then I could throw it in his face. Hey, that's a good line for when I break up with him. This is going to be so much fun.

'Hayley, I've decided I'm going to break up with Sirius at the end of this lesson,' I whispered.

'I thought you were already single!' she whispered back. Professor McGonagall was helping other students with their transformations of their friends. The class was dramatically smaller now; all the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students had gone to have classes in other rooms with teachers who spoke their language.

'No! We just haven't spoken to each other,' I replied simply. Hayley and I had finally mastered the art of turning your friends into other animals, I had turned her into a rabbit and she had turned me into donkey.

'Miss McKeller and Miss Ballard, please refrain from socialising in my class,' Professor McGonagall said.

'Yes, miss,' we both said. I could hear someone snickering, and it wasn't a friendly snicker either. No surprise it was Sirius laughing at us for getting in trouble, well to be correct, laughing at me for getting in trouble.

I was grateful though, James elbowed him to shut up, either that he was standing up for me or he didn't want Sirius to get in trouble.

Finally the lesson came to end, 'you know, Hayley, I'm feeling a bit sick now,' you know that feeling you get when you want to do something, but you're a little nervous about doing it? It's very similar to the one you get when you eat too much chocolate.

'Anna, you're made of stronger stuff than this, so go out there now and tell him to piss off,' she said pushing me.

I will, I will go and tell him to piss off. Just not in those words.

'Oi Black! Black! Not you!' I said when Bellatrix spun around, I ran past her and grabbed Sirius on the shoulder. 'Black, it's over between us!' I said grinning triumphantly, he looked like he could kill me. 'And, if you had ever given me any presents I would throw them in your face!' Okay, maybe that was a little lame, I shouldn't have said that, I feel like the biggest dickhead ever now.

'Anything else?' he asked simply.

'Yeah, two things, if you want to tell me something, tell me yourself don't get someone else to,' I said, he raised his eyebrows, God he's hot. I mean, no, bad-looking… he's doing it on purpose I know it! Damn Black! My eye twitched. Damn eye! 'Stay away from me and my friends.' And I turned around and left with my nose in the air before I realised that I had my next class with him. 'Shit.' I said turning back the other way.

'Hey McKeller,' Bellatrix was standing just outside the Transfiguration room.

'Yeah…?'

'I heard what you said to Sirius,' she said.

'And…?'

I'm not too good at sentences right now, just a little shocked.

'I thought you had guts to stand up to him. Not many people can do that,' she said.

'What are you saying?'

'Well, do you wanna hang out with me and my friends sometime?' she asked.

Well, this could be good to get to Sirius' nerves.

'Sure, why not?' I said grinning.

'Cool, so what subject do you have next?'

'Uh…' I checked my timetable, 'Defence.'

'Oh, you're in my class, come on, we'll walk together,' she said grabbing my arm and leading me there.

I studied Bellatrix as we walked to class together: she was my height; the obvious things were that she had long black hair, perfectly straight the fell down her back, and wore thick, black mascara and smudgy, black eyeliner. But things most people wouldn't notice was that she had stunning, bright blue eyes, perfectly straight teeth, light, creamy skin, nails like daggers and an extremely strong grip. She had this all over appearance of a dark-beauty, kind of what the Muggles imagine a witch to look like.

I couldn't help but grin smugly when Bellatrix and I walked into the Defence room ten minutes late. Sirius just stared at me dumbstruck and horrified, as I skipped down to sit in front of him, next to Hayley. Professor Healy loomed down on me.

'Miss McKeller, and Miss Black, would you like to inform me as too why you are late?' she asked, her yellow teeth inches from my face. I also made the point to notice it was me getting in trouble. She must love Slytherins.

'Er-' pathetic, I am absolutely pathetic. I could hear Sirius snickering behind me. 'Well, we stopped by the toilets.'

Bellatrix was smiling at me so I smiled back; she then shot a death glare at her cousin.

'And what gives you the right of going to the bathroom instead of attending my class?' she asked.

'Well, actually I did think about that, and there were two options: option a) being that I could go to the bathroom before coming to class or option b) I could go to class, piss my pants, and you could clean it up whilst I went to the dorm to change,' I said simply sometimes my tongue gets carried away. The whole class erupted into laughter, even Snape and Sirius, my heart jumped for several seconds; however it went back to its usual position when he stopped himself quickly when he realised what he was doing.

She clenched her fists and teeth. 'Miss McKeller, I will speak to you after class.'

Getting detention is worth saying that to a teacher, I've wanted to ever since Joe Daniels said it to our year seven teacher when I was at the Muggle primary school.

'Anna, how come you were with Bellatrix?' Hayley whispered behind her text as she read a chapter titled 'Spells and Dragons: What to use and what not to use.'

'She's nice,' was all I said as Healy glared over her book at us.

'Anna, you remember what Sirius told you – all the Slytherin's turn out to be dark wizards, and especially most of his family are dark wizards,' Hayley hissed.

'Do you think I care what he says? He's a dickhead, a stuck up prick who only cares about himself,' I whispered back, slightly audible to the rest of the class.

I could hear a strangling noise behind and hoped James or Remus was strangling Sirius for some unapparent reason.

'Anna… just be careful okay? I mean, look at the people she hangs around, Lestrange, the one she's going out with and his brother, Avery – not your Avery, that's this guys last name, Nott, Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, McKinnon…' Hayley said counting names off her fingers.

'Hayley, do these people have first names?'

'Probably, I just don't know them,' we both giggled.

'That's it! Ballard, up the front here, next to Mr Snape, and McKeller next to Miss Baker,' ha, sucks to be Hayley. I grinned at her and she gave me the finger as I sat next to Tamara and she sat next to Snape edging her chair slightly over and then slightly back when she realised that the further she was from Snape the closer she was from Healy.

'Lily, I didn't ask your opinion on Pierre,' Tamara whispered trying to hide her anger.

'I don't care, he's dumb, he can't speak English too well, he acts like a five year, has a whiney voice, and thinks he can sing when he clearly can't,' Lily replied.

'You don't see me badmouthing James!' Tamara said.

'That's because you're friends with him!' Lily glared.

'Guys, don't fight, there's too many fights lately!' I interrupted.

I could see Hayley trying to get into conversation with Snape. Probably asking him what sort of shampoo and conditioner he uses. I snorted.

'Actually there's only one, and that's between you and Sirius,' Tamara said grinning.

'Shut up,' I said glumly my thoughts instantly off about Snape and his shampoo.

'Pierre's ugly,' Lily said after a moment's silence.

'James has a head like a… like a pumpkin!' Tamara said.

'Pierre looks like a grasshopper,' Lily said.

'James looks like a cricket,' Tamara said.

'Crickets and grasshoppers are the same thing,' I said, well I think they are.

'Fine, James looks like a cricket bat,' Tamara said.

'How can someone look like a cricket bat?' I asked.

'He just does,' Tamara said.

'Well… Pierre looks like… Pierre is… Pierre is French!' Lily said grinning triumphantly.

Tamara glared at her.

'What's wrong with being French?' I asked confused.

'Everything, my dear,' Lily began, 'the French and the people of the UK have always been at war – well except in recent times anyway. And they're good old rivals, and stuck up pompous arses.'

'That's what us Aussies think of you Brits,' I said grinning.

Tamara and Lily looked at me, and then Lily said 'ooh that was harsh and uncalled for.'

'Ahh well, you'll get over it,' I grinned.

Tamara hit me over the head with her text book, 'SHIT! Tamara that hurt!'

'MCKELLER! I WILL NOT HAVE THAT LANGUAGE IN MY CLASSROOM! OUT! NOW!' Professor Healy roared.

Tamara and Lily grinned at me, Hayley gave me an encouraging wave and Sirius smirked. Professor Healy followed me out as I was stuttering to explain what happened. Behind her I could see Hayley giving her the biggest finger waves ever. She was practically out of her seat and dancing. Everyone was laughing.

'But Tamara hit me on the head with her book!' I protested.

'Miss McKeller, ever since you came here you have had nothing but disrespect for our rules and way of life,' she said.

Uh-huh… does she realise she doesn't seem to be making much sense?

Hayley was still finger waving her, I cracked a smile.

'Right now you are showing disrespect for me! You are not listening to a single word I am saying,' she said.

She was right. I was making up a little tune in my head to go with Hayley's dance.

'Wait out here, I have a class to teach, I want a five-hundred word apology,' she said. I nodded as if I understood. 'And it's due tomorrow.'

That I perfectly understood. I get the feeling she doesn't like me.

She walked back into the classroom and I followed.

'What are you doing?' she asked.

'I'm getting my books and writing gear, how else do you expect me to write an apology?' I said innocently, people where containing their laughter again.

She grumbled something and went back to her desk as I picked up my books from next to Tamara and 'accidentally' knocked her inkpot all over her work and books.

I sat outside. I looked at the parchment and decided to do the apology later, I think when Hayley had to apologise for stealing and eating a chocolate frog meant for someone else she made a few copies for later use.

I sat down and decided to write a letter to my mum. Then I began drawing when that was done. I'm not a bad drawer if I say so myself. I decided to draw a Pegasus for no real reason, the only one being I wanted to have a pet one all my life. Pegasus' are much better pets than dragons.

I was interrupted from my line of thought and artistic work when Hayley waltzed out telling me the lesson was over and we could go. I ran inside, avoiding the glares from Sirius, and avoiding Professor Healy all together because I wasn't in the mood to talk to her about detentions. So I grabbed my bag and sprinted to the bathroom to clean up before lunch.

* * *

I was halfway through my chicken burger when I noticed Sirius was heading my way. I knew he was going to talk to me because he was looking at the ground. I decided to keep myself from shouting out anything stupid by taking the biggest bite possible of my burger.

Maybe he was going to apologise, and say he was a dumbass and shouldn't have acted like a prick. Then again with an ego as large and inflated as his I highly doubted that.

'McKeller,' he said. So we weren't on first name turns. Makes sense seeing as I called him 'Black' first.

I couldn't speak, my mouth was too full. Shoving heaps of chicken burger in your mouth at once is not a good idea. I could hardly chew it my mouth was so full. I tried to say 'yeah' but only a gurgled sort of sound came out so I nodded my head and looked at the rest of my burger which didn't look as inviting to eat now that it was practically suffocating me.

Here it comes, the big news, 'Healy's looking for you.' And then he disappeared back down to his end of the table.

'Shit!' I said spraying bits of chicken and bread everywhere, I headed out of the hall followed by Matilda and Hayley and we went and hid in one of the courtyards.

'What's going on with Healy?' Matilda asked.

Hayley told her all about the Defence lesson, and Matilda laughed as hard as ever.

'Hey Anna,' Bellatrix said coming over with a few other dark looking girls.

'Hi Bellatrix,' I said, Matilda and Hayley looked at me. 'You know Hayley, and Tilly?'

'Hi,' she said sweetly, 'these are Narcissa, she's my sister, and this is Marlie and Bron.'

Marlie and Bron looked like a tough pair of girls. They weren't butch or anything, but they were the sporty type, I wondered if they were on the Slytherin Quidditch team. Narcissa was Bellatrix's height, but much skinnier, I wondered if she had an eating disorder if some sort, she was quite pale and had blonde hair, and a slightly pinched nose.

We were all happily talking and chatting as friends do, asking questions about each others lives and such, then Johnno came running down calling my name, he looked scared.

'Anna, it's Avery, I don't know what's wrong but he asked me to find you, it's an emergency, I think,'

'Oh my god!' I jumped up, 'I'm so sorry guys, I have to go.'

They all smiled sympathetically, I noticed that the Slytherin's all looked sort of fake.

'Yeah, that's ok,' Hayley said, giving me a hug, 'do you want me to come?'

'No, I'll be alright,' I said.

Johnno and I ran out of the little courtyard and back into Hogwarts, 'what happened?'

'We were sitting in the hall eating when a letter arrived, he opened it up, and went sort of all white and clammy, got up and walked straight back to our room and collapsed on one of the couches, he was all white and shaky.'

'Shit! This can't be good,' I always state the obvious dumb things in situations like these, I'm hopeless in emergencies. We ran up to the room were we were staying and he wasn't there but Professor McGonagall was.

'He's up in Professor Dumbledore's office now; everything will be explained then,' she said, 'Mr Quinn thank you for escorting Miss McKeller,'

'I'm not going to like this am I?' I replied glumly.

'No, not really,' she replied grimly, we arrived at a statue of a Gargoyle, horrible looking thing but anyway, 'Mucho Nacho,'

Despite the situation I giggled, I couldn't help it, what kind of password was _Mucho Nacho_? I got over it quickly. We walked up a staircase that revolved upwards finishing at two double doors, McGonagall pushed them open and led me to a seat next to Avery who looked slightly more relaxed than what Rory described but then he had, had about half an hour to cool down from the shock.

'Anna, this letter arrived at lunch, it was addressed for both you and Avery,' Dumbledore handed me the envelope; I took it off him, my hands shaking.

'Thanks,' I opened the envelope and took out the letter. It was written in black cursive writing, this can't be good…

* * *

**Yay! So that's the letter thingy my brother screwed up before, and I changed it a bit seeing as Anna and Sirius aren't talking, but yeah.**

**I won't be updating for a while (but it's not as if I ever do) cause my bestie is coming up from Newcastle for a week and then I'm flying there for a week. And it's all sort of rigged because whilst I escape my twin brother for a week I get stuck with hers. And vice versa.**

**Ha ha, newsbreak! There's a kangaroo on the run in France! That is hilarious. Kangaroo's are nice, except the big ones, wallabies and mountain ones are nice, the big ones, which are called Red Kangaroos live in the desert and are pests.**


	15. Of All People

**Hey hey hey everybody! Well, it's been about 2 weeks since I last updated cause my bestie has been staying with me for a week and then I went and stayed with her for a week (and her twin brother, and personally, I prefer mine.) But yeah, new chappie, and don't worry, it's far from over.

* * *

**

Why is it that when something bad happens in your life, almost ten seconds later (or a couple of days later) something worse happens?

Or that you just had a really bad break up with your boyfriend because he was an arrogant, stuck up, prick, son of a bitch, who couldn't stand loosing too you – the list goes for miles so I won't bother with it all – and then a letter comes saying that your mum – the best mum that could ever exist in the whole world – has been murdered by Death Eaters. And not only that, but you have to go live with your dad, who you hate because he left your mum when you and your twin brother were not even born, all because she was a witch.

Why would Death Eaters want to kill my mum though? I mean, of all people! She was a hairdresser! She was engaged to Rhett Chapman, the Beater of the Brisbane Basilisks! What could she have done that would have made Voldemort want to kill her? She was an Australian! Pure-blood even! All that crap with Voldemort and the Death Eaters isn't even in Australia for crying out loud! Its in bloody Europe! Where I am now… shit.

* * *

'Anna…? Anna…? Anna listen to me God dammit!' Hayley said getting a little annoyed at me for staring off into space and not talking to her when she met me in the common room after returning from Professor Dumbledore's office.

'I don't want to talk about it,' I muttered. Who would want to talk about their mum's death just after they've found out?

'Anna… could you just tell us what's going on?' Matilda asked sounding serious for once in her life.

'Not yet… I need sleep… sleep…' I murmed hardly aware of the fact that there were people around me. 'Where's Avery?'

Hayley and Matilda cast each other side glances.

'He's in the Hospital Wing,' Hayley said.

'I want to see him,' I said.

'You walked him there on the way out of Professor Dumbledore's office, he had a nervous collapse, and the Nurse told us to leave,' Matilda said. 'Remember?'

I shook my head making it hurt.

'Anna, you should get some sleep,' Hayley said.

'I'm fine… I just need to see Avery…' I tried to stand up and collapsed back onto the lounge into darkness.

* * *

I woke up on my bed, it must have been about five in the morning, the sun was just beginning to rise and the sky was a pinkish colour. I sat up looking at the scenery until I went and had a shower, changed into my uniform and went down to breakfast.

Not surprisingly there weren't many people down at breakfast, and at the Gryffindor table there were only a few little kids. I sat down and slowly buttered a piece of toast and covered it in the thickest slab of Nutella imaginable.

I sat there slowly chewing; I probably looked like a cow. I was tempted to have coffee, but decided against it opting for a glass of milk. Normally when I don't have coffee I drink Milo, but there was no Milo, so it was plain milk, which wasn't so bad.

I think my mum's death is affecting me bad. I don't normally think about milk and thick Nutella, I normally think about how to get revenge at the people I'm currently not talking to, i.e. Sirius Black.

'So where's all your Slytherin friends?' damn maybe I should stop thinking about him and he'll stop turning up near me.

'Piss off,' I said glumly to Sirius. I didn't want to talk to him, or have anything to do with him – at least until I managed to get rid of my milk moustache and chocolate covered face.

'Jeez, you're grumpy this morning, up past your bed time eh?' he snickered.

'Just piss off! Leave me alone! I don't want anything to do with you; I want you out of my life! Just… just… oh fuck it,' I shouted beginning to storm off.

'See, that's your problem,' he shouted back, 'you don't stand and fight. You shout your guts out at a person and then storm off before they can have their say!'

I spun around and hissed, 'what did you say?'

'To sum it up, you're a coward,' Sirius said, 'you shout, then run off and let everyone comfort you.'

'You don't know one thing about me, so lay off,' I said glaring at him.

'You're an attention seeker!' he shouted ignoring every word I said.

'Me? I'm not the one who refused to talk to anyone just because they lost one game of Quidditch!' I was beginning to think it was lucky I woke up early; if it were any later the hall would be swarming with teachers. 'You're the one who loves the attention when you win, you know normally I would say 'it wouldn't hurt for you to lose once in awhile' but you know, it just made you worse.'

He glared at me for a minute, and I glared at him. There was something in his eyes… something that looked like a mix of anger, sadness, awe… I dunno, I sound like an idiot.

'If you two are finished verbally abusing each other…?' Hayley's voice said from behind.

'Hmm…?' I said dragging my eyes away from Sirius – I mean Black.

'Mr Pryor wants you to go back to the common room, he's escorting you and Avery to your dad's place,' she said solemnly.

I was going to my dad's. I would rather live with Sirius – I mean Black – than live with my dad.

Hayley hugged me and whispered in my ear, 'don't worry; I'm not going to say everything's going to be fine, but stay strong, OK? Me and Tilly will be there in a week, exams remember?' Hayley laughed and let me go.

I was crying now. Tears were pouring down my face yet again. Silent tears, Sirius couldn't see me; I didn't want him to see me.

'What? Are you getting kicked out or something?' I heard him say loudly.

I ignored him. He would have Hayley to deal with now. Oh I pity him now, being on the receiving end of Hayley's anger is not the nicest experience.

* * *

'Anna, you can change out of your uniform and put more comfortable clothes on, pack your things, just what you'll need for the next two weeks…' Mr Pryor was telling me. He doesn't need to tell me, I'll pack whatever I God damn feel like.

Great. It just occurred to me that I would have to spend the bus trip to dad's with Mr Pryor. And things just keep getting better…

I was wondering where Avery was. I mean, can't we get our friends to pack our things? Shouldn't we be spending time together, brother and sister, basically orphans? Dad isn't our father… or so we like to think. He hasn't seen us since we started at All Hallows. He tried to turn us into Muggles for God's sake! If the Death Eaters had to kill anyone, why not him? I mean, it's not like anyone would miss him.

I chucked all my clothes into my bag and started chucking all my photos in with them. There's this one picture I love, it's of Mum, Avery, Rhett and I, at the game where Brisbane beat Darwin, 530 – 120. At the end of the night Mum and Rhett were so drunk, it was hilarious. I sighed, why did this have to happen? And things can only get worse. You know what they say, bad luck comes in threes. The first one would have to be the fight with Sirius – I mean Black – argh! Wish he'd get out of my head. Anyway, moving on, the second is, well, you know… Mum… I suppose the third is probably having to move in with Dad.

I wonder if Avery and I can get our own apartment, or stay in boarding until we leave school and then get our own place… or move in with Matilda – I mean she is our cousin and her parents are our God Parents. Or even better Rhett… no. He wouldn't adopt us. He'll hang around for the funeral and be all like 'oh, guys, that sucks, I can't be your step-dad now, oh well, see ya around' and maybe give us season tickets to every game every year.

I really need someone to talk to. I waited for someone to come in – like in stories or movies, the person says out loud, 'I need someone to talk to' and then someone comes to talk to them, or a fairy godmother appears. Neither happened.

'I need someone to talk to…' I said out loud. I mean, all that stuff with fairy godmothers is just made up, but they're magic, so maybe they do exist as long as magic exists…

I waited for about half an hour and no one turned up. I decided to scour Hayley's cupboard for any of my clothes she's borrowed – she leaves her key in her tissue box.

All I could find was my Basilisks jersey – signed by all the players – she loved that jersey, and so did I. I pulled my jumper off and put the jersey on. It wasn't as warm as the jumper, but it was more comfortable, and made me feel all warm and cosy inside.

'Anna?' it was Hayley and Matilda standing at the door.

'Bout time you guys got here, I've already asked for someone to come,' I replied smiling. 'Preferably a fair godmother, but you guys will do just fine.'

Hayley poked her tongue out and Matilda pouted, 'aren't we good enough for you?'

I pretended to think… 'hmm… do I really have to answer that?'

We all giggled for a minute and then went back to the awkward silence.

'So…' they asked sitting down on my bed.

'I guess you guys know now, eh?' I asked.

'Yeah…' they said.

'Anna, we're really sorry about what happened,' Matilda said hugging me.

I started crying again. I've never been this upset in my life.

'Aww, Anna,' we had a big group hug.

I finally pulled away and wiped my eyes. Hayley and Matilda looked mournfully at me.

'What did you say to Sirius before?' I asked.

'I told him,' Hayley said bluntly.

'What! You never told me you talked to him!' Matilda shrieked.

'Shut up Tilly, I'll tell you later,' Hayley said.

Matilda shut her mouth immediately.

'What was his reaction?' I asked.

'He was shocked at first,' Hayley said, 'then he looked really upset, and asked me to…' Hayley trailed off.

'Hayley, what did he say?' I asked, she always trails off on me, I hate it!

'He… he asked me to tell you,' she paused for effect.

'Get on with it,' Matilda and I said at the same time.

Hayley sighed, 'he told me to tell you something… but,' Hayley cringed. There was a 'but'; I hate 'buts'.

'Hayley what did you say?' I asked dreading the answer.

'Well… er… oh what the hell, I told him to tell you himself before he could tell me,' she said quickly.

I rolled my eyes. Just like Hayley to build the suspense and then have nothing to say.

Silence again, we quietly packed my bag, and then Hayley broke the silence.

'Wasn't that jersey in my cupboard?' Hayley asked looking at me.

'Umm… yeah…' I replied guiltily.

'Isn't my cupboard locked…?' she asked suspiciously.

'Umm… yeah…'

'How did you get it unlocked?' Hayley asked.

'Uhh… _Alohomora_?' I grinned sheepishly.

'Anna, you know my lock is _'Alohomora'_ proof,' Hayley sighed.

'Umm… no comment,' I said, Matilda stifled a laugh.

Hayley sighed, 'Matilda do you know where my key is kept as well?'

Matilda nodded, 'tissue box. What? It's not like you keep it secret or anything…'

Hayley ignored her and tackled me and Matilda started bashing her with pillows.

'Ahem,' a voice came from the door.

'Mr Pryor,' Hayley said innocently, 'we were just helping Anna pack…'

'Shouldn't you be in class?' he asked ignoring the Matilda bashing Hayley, Hayley bashing Anna, Anna trying to survive both their weights put together scene.

'Look, we just wanted to say bye to Anna and comfort her,' Matilda said angrily.

'Well you can say your goodbyes now, you five minutes until she leaves,' he said leaving the room.

We had the whole big goodbye scene: tears, hugs, tears, more hugs, comforting messages and death threats if I didn't write.

Finally Mr Pryor came back and took my bag out to the bus, Hayley and Matilda followed until he told them to leave and go to class, which at that point we had one more goodbye, hugs, tears and 'I'll see you next week.'

Avery was already in the bus, sitting on his own, looking lost, and glad to see me.

'Hey,' I said sitting down next to him.

'Hey,' he said softly.

We hugged for about the first time in ten years and then I ended up falling asleep on his shoulder.

* * *

I was shaken awake by Avery when we arrived at Dad's place. There was no one waiting out the front for us. It was a typical Old Queenslander style house. It looked new but was probably around fifty or so years old, made of wood and probably had been renovated about ten times since Dad had moved in. It was the usual – built above ground so the cool air would gather underneath and insulate the house, the garage and laundry was underneath, with the large veranda that swept around the place.

'I can't stay here to talk so I'll be leaving you here, I trust you'll be able to get yourself in,' Mr Pryor told us. 'Your father said there was a spare key in the mailbox, in case he wasn't home to let you in.'

Typical, I knew he wouldn't be here to greet us. Avery and I said our thanks, picked our bags up and headed to the front door as the bus left disappearing down the street.

We knocked on the door a couple times until a woman with perfect blonde hair, blue eyes, perfect body, perfect skin, and looked about twenty-five answered the door.

'Hi, you must be Anna and Avery, I'm Heather, I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to your mother you must be…' I didn't hear the rest of what she had to say. Dad had replaced us, with a perfect, blonde woman, who probably had two perfect, blonde children – who I bet are all Muggles. I just don't believe him at all.

* * *

**Well I'm kinda grounded at the moment, so I dunno when the next chapter will be up seeing as I'm kinda banned from the Internet, and the only way I'm able to get on is when everyone's out, and unfortunately they've put a password on the computer that has Internet access (which fortunately isn't mine so I can still type them up and hack in) but what they don't know is that I know all the passwords. Mwahahahaha! I only have ten days of grounding next!**

**XxXxX**

**Caitlin**


	16. the Perfect Blonde Family

**Hey long time, no see!**

**Yeah I know, I suck, I'm so lazy, I haven't updated in ages. I went back to school last Wednesday, and I'm not going to use the excuse that I've got heaps of homework, because I haven't, I'm just lazy and/ or am doing other things, like being social. Also I tried to put this chappie up last week but the internet was going all crappy.**

* * *

I can't believe him! He replaced us! With a perfect blonde Muggle family. Oh and did I mention that they probably have no idea about what we are?

'Come in, come in,' Heather said smiling, 'I've heard so much about you two.'

'Really?' Avery said sort of dazed about the whole thing.

'Well, we haven't heard anything about you,' I said deciding instantly I was going to be a pain in the arse.

'That's because we haven't had much contact with our Dad in the past seven years,' Avery inserted trying to be nice – I could tell he didn't really like her, you know, twin telepathy.

Heather nodded smiling, a little flustered, 'well, your rooms are up the back, here let me show you to them.'

'Uh… don't we have our old rooms?' I asked.

'No, because your father didn't expect that you would be staying with him, so we gave your rooms to Taylor and Stacey,' I didn't want to know who Taylor and Stacey were, but I had a feeling Avery wasn't my only sibling anymore. And as for thinking I wouldn't be staying with him anymore… he's my father! He's supposed to be kind, considerate, accepting, not in denial and giving my room to someone else! What about my beautiful posters! Sure they were of ponies and silly little pop singers… that's not the point.

Avery and I exchanged glances, which meant he was thinking the same as me.

Heather led us down to a newer part of the house that hadn't been there since we had last visited. It smelt new, you know, like the smell of paint? It's nice at first and then it just pisses everyone off.

Our new rooms were… nice. I prefer my old room though at Mum's, it's so cosy! And comfy and it has this beautiful window seat with heaps of pillows that looks out over the ocean, and all my photos are pinned up in that area.

Heather stood there at the door, her smile plastered all over her face. I put my bag on my bed and began to unzip it.

'You can unpack later, I bet your hungry and tired, how long was your flight back here?' she asked.

Dad hadn't told them, probably didn't want to scare them. How the hell am I supposed to know how long a flight from England is? I've never even been on a plane!

'Too long,' I made up and laughed. That basically covered it.

Heather laughed, 'who did you fly with?'

Think, Anna, think… 'Uhh…'

'QANTAS?' Heather asked smiling.

'Yeah, that's the one,' I said laughing, 'I think I'm losing my mind, God, I'm exhausted.'

Heather laughed, 'I can understand that, I flew to London to visit my sister once, it was horrible, it just went on and on, and then with the whole time difference, I think I slept for about three days straight.'

OK, so I'm beginning to like Heather, she's nice enough. But she's not Mum.

'What were you doing in England?' Heather asked.

'Well,' we went over it in the bus, it was a basketball trip, not Quidditch, 'we were representing the school in basketball.'

'Basketball? You must be pretty good to go play against other schools in England,' Heather stated.

'Course, we're the top, in all of Australia,' Avery gloated I rolled my eyes, but it was partially true, I mean we are the top in Quidditch in Australia, but I wouldn't judge my basketball skills.

'What other schools were there?' Heather asked.

'Um, there was a French one, called Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, they're from, uh, Germany, and there was Haamid, from Africa, Serefina from America and there was the English school,' I said, I decided I could say the names of the European and African schools, seeing as they usually speak other languages it wouldn't matter, and Serefina could get away with it, seeing as it sounds like a public high school, but I don't think Hogwarts would quite pass…

'What was the name of the English school?' Heather continued with her interrogation.

'Uh, Saint… Saint Mary's,' I decided, the first saintly like name popping into my head.

'Where about is that?' ah, an excellent question, just wish I knew the answer, I don't even know where Hogwarts is, someone told me it was in Scotland though.

'Oxford,' Avery supplied.

'So, have you met any interesting people?'

'No, they've all been bland and boring,' I mocked sounding serious.

Avery kicked me under the table, 'don't listen to her, she's being an idiot.'

Heather smiled at me, I partially glared.

'Everyone's cool, we have made quite a few friends,' I answered.

'And relationships…' Avery murmed low enough so Heather wouldn't hear. Then I kicked him.

And then, as if she did, I bet she did, I'm so going to kill Avery. Heather asked the big question, OK, so it wasn't that big, but it's close. 'Have you met any boys? Or girls in your case Avery?'

As if we'd tell her, 'just the people in our classes, no relationships, too hard, long distance.'

'But we have a dance, formal sort of thing at the end of it, like a big party for all us Champions,' insert eye roll at champions, 'and we have to have a dance partner.'

Oh no, Avery did not just say that, I cringed. Who the hell am I going to go with? Hayley has Avery, Matilda has… I'm not going to answer that, Lily has James, Tamara has Pierre, and I have one bad memory.

I sighed at the thought, why me? I have the suckiest life ever.

'Well, Taylor and Stacey are at school at the moment, I've got to pick them up five minutes, do you want to come along and meet them?' Heather asked.

'I'd love to… but I'm a bit tired for screaming, running children at the moment,' I replied, and I'm a bit too tired for anything Muggle.

'What school do they go to?' Avery asked taking a biscuit from the bench and shoving the whole thing in his mouth at once.

'Saints Peter and Paul's Primary. That's the one you two used to go to I believe?' Heather asked.

'Hey, yeah, it is too…' I mused, 'I wonder if all the old teachers are there?'

'Well, if you want to come along…' Heather asked, I think she really wants us to come.

'I'd love to, get to see the old school. What year are they in?' Avery asked.

'Stacey's in year one and Taylor's in year three,' Heather said.

'Does Sister Crawfell still teach there? If she does she'd probably be Taylor's teacher,' Avery said.

'Well, they don't use nuns to teach anymore, they're running out of nuns I think, but she's there, they mainly teach religion and run the masses. Did she teach you two?' Heather asked.

'Yeah, unfortunately. Can't believe they haven't had her dragged away in chains for child abuse yet,' I muttered. Sister Crawfell, shudder, bad memories. Avery and I went to a Catholic school, and naturally they came with nuns. Horrid things them. How someone so Holy could be so cruel…

Heather was laughing. _Again_. I swear I'm going to strangle that woman.

But no more nuns. That's a good thing, lucky kids; wish I was born in this decade.

'Yes, I've heard some stories about her, they're still allowed to use the cane, but I think it's being stopped next year,' Heather said.

Well, no more cane, that's even better than no nuns. I wish I was born in this decade even more than before! I can't describe how happy I was the day I got my letter saying I was accepted to All Hallows, I was so happy I could've flown without a broom.

'Well, enough chit chat, we can talk in the car, we have to get the kids,' Heather said smiling – I wonder if someone's cast a permanent cheery charm on her. Well whoever it was, I'd love it if they cast it on me.

Heather's car was a BMW, a nice blue one.

'Nice car,' Avery said as we got in, Avery in the front and me in the back.

'Well, your father and I work hard and we earned it,' Heather said.

'We could buy one if we wanted, but Mum doesn't think we need an expensive car if we've got one that works perfectly fine,' I said, well, she would say that if we had a car, we don't need a car, but Heather doesn't need to know that.

Avery shot me a glare, which I just made a face at him that said 'what?' I noticed that Heather was still smiling, but her grip on the steering wheel tightened and her knuckles went white.

We drove in silence for a while, me being the obnoxious teenager, sat with my head resting in my hand looking out the window.

'So, what subjects are you taking for your exams?' Heather asked. Poor woman has no clue whatsoever.

'Well, just the basics, you know, to keep our options open, we're both learning Italian though,' Avery said. Learning Italian? Couldn't he say French? I know a few French words, everyone does, the only Italian words I know is 'Ciao' and 'Non Capisco' which means 'I don't understand'…

'Italian? Not many people learn that one, probably because of all the wogs…' Heather laughed, I gathered she thought she was being funny.

'Oh, yeah, well I wanted to learn Japanese, but there aren't too many people who are keen on teaching that seeing as the whole World War 2 thing and everything,' I said. Not realising I was hanging myself.

'How much did you learn about the War? It ended around the year I was born,' how old was this woman? Like twenty?

'Hey Anna, look there's the school!' Avery pointed out excitedly.

'Jeez, could you try being a little more excited about seeing our old school,' I said rolling my eyes. Avery flipped his middle finger up behind Heather's back.

I looked around for something interesting, boring, boring, boring, hey a hippy! Probably goes to the public school up the road.

We walked into the gates; the school looked the same as it had seven years ago – boring and religious. Then Avery grabbed my arm and looked all pale.

'What?' I asked him trying to shake him off.

He nodded his head in the way of an old woman dressed in the traditional habit. Sister Crawfell. Avery had a worse experience with her than me; she actually washed his mouth out with soap! All because he said 'oh my God'. Least it wasn't as bad as what she did to Daniel Lincoln… he swore one time in year five, and she swooped down on him like an angel from hell – literally – and grabbed his wrist, hauled him out of his seat, then, in front of the class, she bent him down and whacked him hard on his backside, then naturally this loud 'fuck' could be heard, followed by another 'whack' and then 'holy crap' 'whack' and so on, so forth.

I have no idea how she did it – it's been seven years for God's sake – but she recognised Avery and I instantly.

'Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in,' I think she just called Heather a cat, 'Anna and Avery McKeller.'

We gasped, it was like a horror movie, I was the first to speak, Avery was still in shock, 'Sister Crawfell, how good to see you,' I stammered trying to smile.

'You haven't changed, still a suck up,' a nun just called me a suck up. 'Didn't you learn anything in this school? Ten commandments, thou shalt not lie.'

I gulped; she was a human lie detector. If she was a normal teacher I'd say back to her 'yes, and the bible says you shouldn't hurt peoples feelings either,' but Sister Crawfell… I don't want to think about it.

'Mr McKeller, don't tell me you're afraid of an old woman?' she cackled, you could tell where the whole stereotypical witch came from, woman like her. It's her fault people like us have to stay in hiding.

Avery shook his head. I looked around to see where Heather was; she was with a group of woman, all perfect and social butterflies. And this is what Matilda wanted to be…

'What brings you back to Peter's and Paul's then?' she asked us as though she was interrogating us for a police trial.

'We're staying with our Dad, our Mum just died,' I said, I knew we couldn't lie around her.

'Pfft,' she said, 'she had it coming, shouldn't try and raise two children on her own, she was too young, eighteen.'

Actually she was seventeen, but I don't think I'll add that.

'Sister Crawfell? Sister Crawfell? Oh there you are,' a stressed looking woman came running in our direction, I think it was the kindy teacher, or grade one, no one else can look that stressed.

'What do you want?' she snapped back.

'Father Nush wants your help for this weekends ceremony,' she said.

'Oh very well,' she said irritably and left us without saying goodbye, not that we cared.

Avery and I let out a sigh of relief.

'Scariest thing I've done in years,' Avery said.

I snorted, 'you didn't do anything, you stood there like a five year old.'

'Yeah well, you would to, you haven't been hit as many times as me by her,' Avery said.

'Point taken,' I replied.

'Anna? Avery? Is that you?' It was Mrs Davies, Jordana's mum; she was probably picking up Curtis and Lorraine.

'Mrs Davies,' we waved as she collected two red heads.

Then Heather waved over two blonde children.

'So… which one's Stacey and which one's Taylor?' I asked Avery as the two blonde children came running over, a girl in a dress and a boy in shorts and shirt.

Avery elbowed me as if I was being rude. Well I probably was, but it didn't seem rude, it was a fair question, I mean, both those names can be used for a boy or a girl.

'Who are they,' the boy asked referring to Avery and I.

'Taylor, I've told you, that's your older brother and sister, Anna and Avery,' Heather said. 'They've come to live with us now.'

The colour drained from my face, I should've known, I mean, it makes sense really, but it can't be right… I mean… no! OK, remain calm, you're not allowed to chuck tantrum's in the middle of primary schools… unless your five, and well, that's only twelve years ago.

'How come we've never met them?' Taylor asked.

'Because they've been in boarding school, and they used to live with their mum,' Heather answered. I've got to admit, she can handle awkward conversations well.

'I'm Stacey,' the little blonde girl came up and introduced herself to Avery and I.

'Stacey's the girl,' Avery whispered in my ear. I kicked him in the shins for being a smartass.

'Hi, I'm Anna, and this is Avery,' I replied, she was so cute… I bet she's a brat. I know, these people are really nice, and I'm trying to find everything bad in them, I'm horrible and determined not to like them.

* * *

Argh! These people are driving me mad! They're so… so… so perfect! I take back anything nice I've said about any of them! OK, so that's going a bit far… but for what I have to put up with.

Avery and I had a good long chat this afternoon during homework time – the only time, might I mention, that the house is quite. As soon as we got back from Peter and Paul's Taylor and Stacey had a red ice block each, probably not the best (or safest) idea ever. I'm still trying to forget it, horrible, my ears still hurt, and not from all the screaming and yelling. Taylor came up behind me clapped his hands over my ears, going at about five hundred kilometres an hour, I think my ears are bruised.

Back to our conversation, it was a nice little one, Mum's funeral is tomorrow, so we've decided to get back into the social scene, and go back to school. That way we a) get away from Heather and the kids and b) try and look like we're coping. Exams are next week, our big final, and exams. The last exams we'll ever take… oh God, I'm so screwed.

But worst of all, Dad will be here this afternoon, after a good old day at work, he's a Lawyer, as a big expensive car, and lives in designer suits, his perfect family to go with his perfect life. Oh yeah, and his two original kids which he ditched when they got accepted into All Hallows, and hasn't talked to since.

No, I am not looking forward to seeing Dad tonight. Avery has it worse though, it's hard to explain, he always loved Dad, and was devastated when he basically ditched us, I guess that's why he almost fainted when he found out Mum died, he needs someone who will always be there for him. Mum was there for all seventeen years of his life so far, and now it's just him and me. Avery and Anna, the McKeller twins, basically orphans now, the rest of our 'family' isn't a family, I'd rather live with our cousins.

* * *

**In two chapters time (or something like that) it's going to be done entirely in Avery's POV because Anna is such a prat right know, and you all deserve to see it from another point of view. I have no idea how Anna got so annoying, but she did…**

**If anyone wants to give me any suggestiongs how I can improve it before I finish, you're more than welcome to :)**

**caitlin**

**XoXoX**


	17. Back to School

**Bah! I really hate this chapter, but I had to get it over and done with and updated. **

**Enjoy, cos I dont...**

* * *

I really don't want to think about it. The funeral that is. My cousins, Jazz, Laurie and Michael where all there with Auntie Jennifer and Uncle Tate, as well as Auntie Eloise and Uncle John, Matilda's parents, I wish Tilly came, even more I wish Hayley could've come. You always need your best friends at times like these. The other guests included Mamma and Pop, they're Mum's parents, Rhett, the rest of our family and Mum's friends, she was a little social bee.

Avery and I said a few words for the eulogy, as did Auntie Eloise and Auntie Jennifer, Mum's sisters. She was buried at the local cemetery where we said our final goodbyes and added a few personal bits and pieces to the coffin, personal stuff that others wouldn't understand, like the poem I wrote for mothers day in grade two, the drawing Avery did of us in grade one, and photo of Avery, Mum and I at our graduation out of the junior school, after our O.W.L.s. I think Rhett even put this gorgeous necklace he bought for her birthday last year, it's a silver cross with little blue gems all through it.

Rhett spoke to Avery and I at the reception – and did exactly as I predicted. 'We can still be mates, you can come to all our games, and get to meet and greet all the players.' – no surprise there.

Dad didn't go, gutless bastard. Mum never talked about it, but I think she was heartbroken when Dad left her. She would act all tough and strong about it all, and go around saying what a prick he was, but she never meant it.

Mamma spent the whole reception hugging – more like suffocating – Avery and I, and blubbering on about how unfair life is, and how she was going to track down and kill whoever it was that killed Mum. Here's a hint for her: the initials are D.E. (i.e. Death Eaters, or Voldemort, she can take her pic, either way I don't think this eighty year old woman will make much of a difference).

I must admit however, I had a nice dress on, it was black (what else would it be, pink?), slightly shimmery, knee length, and I had this black wide brim hat, I dunno what they're called but they kinda dip around the face, but anyhow, it had a ribbon around it.

* * *

'Do you want a ride to school?' Dad asked, as I was halfway through my Vegemite toast and Milo.

Yes, the day after my Mum's funeral I have to go to school. We had a choice, but with our N.E.W.T.s next week and Heather being a housewife, we put our priorities over emotions (except in the Heather case where the emotions fit in perfectly with our priorities). It was probably a smart thing to do as well, now I have an excuse to be anti-social with the 'family', I have to study.

'Sure, may as well spend my ferry money on food at school,' I replied with not a hint of warmth in my voice as I ate the last piece of toast and grabbed my oversized school bag that was stuffed with books.

It was basically the first thing I've said to Dad since we got back. Avery hasn't spoken to him either. Except for the little 'heart to heart' we had with him on our first night about not telling the 'family' about what we were. Avery scared the shit out of him by saying that we already had slipped it. We also had a little scream at him, but got over it. Avery and I are planning to reveal ourselves at the most random moment, like come in the house holding our brooms and have our wands sticking out our pockets. It's not really anything different cause everyone goes around with their wands sticking out their pockets, well really only around school and all the other magic spots around Australia.

We got into the Beemer, God it was a nice car – no think grumpy thoughts, think grumpy thoughts, think… oh crap I forgot my broom. I ran back inside with Dad nervously looking around in case some of the nosy neighbours saw me carrying a broomstick out of the house and decided to gossip.

It took me ten minutes during the car trip to realise that I didn't even need my broom, but Dad refused to drive me home to drop it back so I had to leave it at school. Which was probably better because I don't think I could stand my precious broomstick at that Muggle house, I mean, what would happen if I arrived home and found Stacey or Taylor flying around the house on it, and Heather had run out of the house screaming for a priest, thinking that it was haunted by a violent ghost that needed to be exorcised. Nah, I can't see that happening anytime soon.

We pulled up in front of the school, 'Anna, Avery, you've got to get the ferry home, I can't pick you up.'

'What about Heather?' I asked knowing what the answer would be.

Dad just glared at me and told us to hurry up and get into the school.

Avery and I looked at each other before walking into the school to see our friends we hadn't seen in a couple of weeks. I was worried they'd be acting all weird around us as if we would break apart at the slightest word.

That idea was scraped the second we walked into the senior area and Jordana came hurtling at me at around 100 kilometres an hour.

'Anna! Oh my God you're back!' she screamed as she jumped up onto me.

'Jesus Christ, Dana, you're right. Ah crap, you've gained like a million kilo's. Joking, joking,' I laughed as I pulled myself away from her and went to greet everyone else.

'Hey kids, how are ya?' Liam asked hugging me and doing one of those weird guy things with Avery. 'I, uh, what I mean is…'

Poor guy, I felt sorry for him, I mean, he had no idea what to say, so I helped him out a bit. 'Well, we've won every game that we've played so far, which is only two, but you know… and then this Saturday we miss the game against Beauxbatons, and everyone comes home for exams, then back to Hogwarts…'

From then on the talk was all Quidditch, can't say I'd have it any other way. Oh, minus all the questions about all the guys there, from Laurie and Dana.

'So… did you meet any hot guys there?' Dana asked. Jeez, does she think of anything else?

'Yeah, there were loads, like, all the guys from America, and England, France, Russia or somewhere, but they were all fit and sporty and fine,' Laurie and Dana burst out in giggles.

'Did you hook up with any guys?' Laurie asked.

I'd been worried that this question would pop up sooner or later, 'no, you know, with all the competition, to hard to have romances, the only romance that has happened involving people from our school are…' I trailed waiting to see their faces. I stopped then and there as Mrs Raide walked past our desk glaring at us to get back to our study.

'Who?' Laurie finally whispered.

'Who what?'

'Who from our school hooked up with someone,' Laurie replied. 'My bet it was Tilly, she always gets the guys.'

'Actually, I think Tilly has gone temporarily insane, she's decided she's only going to go after guys who don't like her, that way she has more of a chance to have fun in trying to get a date,' Laurie and Dana rolled their eyes, just like Hayley and I had done.

'OK then, who did hook up? Was it Harley, he can get any girl he wants,' Dana guessed.

'Wrong, actually, I dunno if Harley hooked up with anyone, he might have, you never know,' I shrugged.

'OK, tell us Anna,' Laurie said.

'OK, it was…' I paused, I think the tension was killing them.

'Anna! Just say it!' Dana quietly complained.

'Alright, alright, don't get your knickers in a knot,' they hate it when I say that. 'It was Hayley and Avery.'

'Oh my God! No way! I don't believe it!' Dana shouted out actually jumping out of her seat.

'Jordana Davies! Sit down and shut up this instant!' Mrs Raide yelled out across the room.

Dana paled at the shock for a second and then sat down quickly and did that stupid smile she always does when she gets in trouble.

'Jordana, move up the front here next to Brenda,' poor Dana, having to sit next to Brenda Jobling…

The next thing I knew when Mrs Raide was telling off Dana and organising a detention for her, Liam turned around and whispered to me, 'did Avery and Hayley really hook up?'

I don't know what the problem is with people in this school, but they never seem to believe it when two people who have known each other for ages hook up.

I sighed, 'yes they did.'

'But Avery's your brother,' Liam said puzzled.

'Yes, I am aware of that,' I said with my eyebrows raised.

'And Hayley is your best friend…'

'Well done Captain Obvious, are you actually going somewhere with this or are we going to point out the obvious all day with you in a dramatic win?'

He scowled at me, but then thankfully quickly got to the point, 'didn't you get angry or anything?'

'Yes, I refused to talk to any of them and I screamed a bit and chucked a few tantrums, and then cried a bit, and then became friends again,' I replied.

'Did you hook up with any one?' he asked.

'Ye- no,' I screwed that one up.

'Anna! You lied to me!' Laurie quickly said.

'No I didn't! I mean, well yeah I did, but we're not in a relationship any more,' I said.

'You were in a relationship? Oh my God, Anna what happened?' Laurie asked as if this was the greatest news flash of all time.

'Nothing happened, we broke up, end of story,' I replied. 'Now did anything interesting happen when I was away?'

'Nah, did you hear about the fight between Dana and Jaz?' Laurie asked.

'No! What happened?'

'Well you know how they've never really gotten along…' not really a question, more of a 'point-the-obvious-out'.

'Yeah…' you'd have to be blind, deaf and possibly mute not to notice.

'Well, last week they finally blew, it was a full out screaming match by the end. One would say something, then the other would get louder than that, and then the other would get louder, and so on and so forth,' Laurie said.

'So… what happened?'

'Mrs Leiks, and Miss Vacher had to drag them away from each other and then they had to go and have this big talk and counselling and all that jazz… mind the pun.'

'You're excused. So that's why Jazz wasn't sitting with you guys this morning then?'

'Oh no, she's still sitting with us. Jazz was just late, as per usual,' Laurie giggled.

'Oh right…' I said still trying to register all that had happened in the last month.

'So, who was this guy you hooked up with? Was he American? Or English? Or French… oh my God, a French guy that would be so awesome!' you can clearly see why Laurie and Tilly are best friends.

'I'd rather not talk about it, and if you don't mind I'm trying to write my C.M.C. essay,' I told them slightly turning away. C.M.C. is Care of Magical Creatures, but really, who could be bothered to say that?

At lunch I went up to the boarding house to see if I was able to come in for the rest of this week, and for the weekends when I'd usually be at Mum's.

'I'm sorry dear, but you haven't paid for this time, so we can't have you staying, you've paid for next Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights -'

'Yeah, but because of my circumstances… I mean, really I am paying, it's just changed schools… and it's not like there's no beds, cause my bed would still be there, my room with all my stuff,' I like pointing out the obvious.

'Anna, aren't you staying at your Dad's house?' Miss Rosers asked.

Oh yeah, and you think I enjoy it there woman? 'Yeah… but it's hard to concentrate there cause of his children… they're so noisy. And they're Muggles that have no idea about our world, and its just to difficult… and do you know how addictive Muggle TV is?'

'Anna… I'm really sorry, I know it must be hard, but if you want you can come here for the study periods after school,' she suggested. Umm… yeah I don't think she got the hint that study is just an excuse…

'Oh, I'll survive… um… I'll just go eat lunch now, see you on Monday Miss Rosers,' I replied with the saddest look I could muster and headed with my head dropped down towards the day school hoping she would change her mind.

No such luck however… I made it to our table and sat down and started complaining about how crappy my life is at the moment. And got a lot of sympathy in the process, as well as bitching about the Dean of Boarding and Laurie trying to find out what happened with the nameless ex.

* * *

'Anna, the ferry's that way,' Avery said pointing down some other street.

'I knew that,' I said following him. Not my fault it was the first time I've caught the ferry home, or to school for that matter.

We headed down to the Riverside Ferry Station; it was new, probably because it was fully under water during the floods a couple years ago.

'What stop do we get off at?' I asked.

'Hawthorne,' Avery replied sitting down on the pontoon.

I sat down next to him and thought for a while. 'How do you know what stops are ours and where the ferry is?'

Avery shook his head, 'Dad told me.'

I highly doubt that.

* * *

**Sorry that's a short chapter, but I wanted to update it, and it's kinda dodgy… forgive me… I know, it could be better… it will get better… I promise… the next chapter is in Avery's point of view, so that should be interesting smiles enthusiastically hoping you'll agree  (can you see that smiley, or is it one of those two dots and bracket?)**

**Toodles and Noodles!**


	18. Through His Eyes

**A/N: Yes my minions, I mean my fans, I know it's been an awful long time, but I have an excuse, I swear I do! And before Tamara cuts in with her oh-so-not witty comment about me being lazy, let me tell you: I WAS BEING CHASED BY THE FBI! I SWEAR! Okay, not really, but I tried didn't I? As much as I'd like to tell you the real excuse as to why it's late, I don't want to bore you to death before you read and review my fantastic piece of artwork (a.k.a. my story).**

**Okay kids, so this chapter is written entirely from Avery's point of view, I thought it would be a nice change, a nice little insight on how Anna needs to be committed to the closest infirmary, which I believe is located on the Gold Coast… I could be wrong, I think I read that in the book Checkers by John Marsden, fantastic book by the way (see I'm a walking, talking advertisement). **

Enjoy while it lasts, there's only about five or so chapters to go I think, I've worked it out all in my head, the way it's supposed to run.

* * *

'Wake up! It's breakfast time!' an unusually cheerful, high-pitched voice, practically shouted in my ear.

I rolled over. I am not going to put up with this crap. It's bad enough living here. 'I'll get breakfast later,' I mumbled in reply.

'But it's breakfast time now!' the voice persisted.

'Piss off or I'll hex you into last century!'

I could hear little feet run out. Thank God.

I was just drifting back into sleep when, 'Daddy says you have to get up now,' the voice giggled.

This is too much to handle. Getting up at… what's the time? I rolled over to look at my old Astro Boy clock. Only I was met face-to-face with the voice. I swear it was a five-year-old Anna, only blonde a blonde version – and more innocent. Definitely more innocent, Anna would kill me if I told her she wasn't innocent, thus taking her innocence any way. So either way I win.

'He also says not to swear,' Stacey giggled before running out.

Right… back to checking the time, It was 6.30 a.m. and… wait a minute… that's not my Astro Boy clock! It was a plain black and white alarm clock one… nothing colourful at all. Being woken up at 6.30 is bad enough, but having my favourite old clock missing? That's just not cool.

'Where's my clock!' I yelled at the top of my lungs.

Dad came in, 'Avery don't shout. What's the problem?'

I picked up the black alarm clock, and pointed to it with my spare hand. 'What is this? Where is my old one?'

'Avery, I thought you'd like a new one,' he said calmly.

'Yeah, well I didn't, did you ask? No. Did you think about my feelings? No. Don't you know how attached I am to that clock? It took me ages to save up for that clock! Weeks! Months!' I've been hanging around Anna too much.

'Avery you got it for your 5th birthday, you didn't pay for it.'

'Well I was going too.'

'Avery you need an alarm clock to get you up in the morning, that old one didn't have an alarm on it,' he reasoned.

'I don't need an alarm clock, Thing Two – I mean Stacey woke me up,' Thing One and Thing Two is the names Anna and I have given to Taylor and Stacey, you know, from Doctor Seuss, and the Cat in the Hat?

'I told her to wake you up because you weren't up at six like I told you and Anna last night,' Dad started pulling the angry-Dad voice now.

'Well sorry, I wasn't listening; I didn't even know I had an alarm clock! Now, can you please get out whilst I get changed? I'm not eight anymore,' I waited for him to glare at me and then turn and around and leave – which he did, but he left the door open so I had to shut it myself.

I looked in my cupboard and found my shirt hanging neatly ironed off the coat hanger and began looking for my shorts… they weren't in my drawers.

'Where are my shorts?' I asked walking into the kitchen where Heather, Taylor and Stacey.

They looked up at me as if they had never seen someone walk into a kitchen with just their boxers and a half-buttoned shirt. 'Um… they should be hanging up in your cupboard.' There was that sweet smile Heather always had… I swear she's been taken directly out of a happy family sitcom on TV.

What the hell where a pair of school shorts doing hanging up in a cupboard? I wondered as I went back into my room and found my shorts being held up by one of those clippie-coat hangers.

If we were at home Mum would have them scrunched up in the ironing basket, waiting for us to do it ourselves – something that would only happen once in a blue-moon.

Breakfast was just toast, I don't see what the big deal was for us getting up. And by us I mean me. Anna hadn't budged from bed yet.

'No! Leave me alone!' her shouts came from her bedroom. Dad had taken on the horrible task of coaxing her out of bed.

There was a moment of silence – obviously where Dad would use his 'civilised' tone – then Anna started up again.

'Fine! Take my doona! What do I care? It's summer. I don't need my doona! Take the sheets while you're at it. You have to make the bed though, I'm not gonna.'

Then Dad's civilised voice would kick in.

'I am not acting like a seven year old! Do you see Taylor acting like that? I am acting like a seventeen year old!' silence then: 'no! Not my pillow!' more silence followed by: 'yeah? Or I could be sleeping and you could've saved ten years off the life of your ears. It was a win-win situation. You ruined it.'

Heather, Stacey and Taylor looked towards the door in shock. They hadn't experienced mornings with Anna, this past week she's been getting up early for some odd reason, but now we're back in school, same old sleeping pattern. God, I hope Anna didn't have her wand near her, or worse her Beater's bat. That might cause a little strife.

I just continued eating my toast and drinking my Milo. Kodak moment, when Anna came in went into the kitchen, put some toast into the toaster, made herself a Milo and then went into the family room and switched on the TV. All in her pyjama's too. The looks the Blonde Trio had on their faces.

'Which one is ABC?' Anna called out, I could hear the noise from all the channels as she ran through the dial. 'Oh wait, ABC doesn't have kids shows on in the morning except on weekends… um… oh here we go.'

Anna was too busy fiddling with the TV to notice Dad head into the lounge room. Boy was she in for it. I began to study my Milo and decide whether or not I should eat the Milo first or mix it in with the milk and drink it. I ended up choosing to eat the Milo first, and then drank the slightly flavoured milk.

Anna came into the room looking sheepish at herself.

'Anna is there something you'd like to say to everyone?' Dad asked her.

'Err, can I have some O.J.?' Anna asked. Dad rolled his eyes, call it twin telepathy or common sense, but something was telling me that asking for O.J. wasn't what Anna was supposed to be asking.

Breakfast was all glares no comments. Which by our standards was good enough, I mean breakfast at our place meant Mum either still in bed, or getting ready for work, and Anna and I lounging around until Mum came and told us to hurry up or we wouldn't have time to chuck our weeks supply of clothes, non-boarding food and money in the dorms before they were closed for the day school.

'I can't drive you two to school today, so you have to get the ferry,' Dad said. Hip hip hooray I mentally sung.

'I can drive them to school if you want, I'm not doing anything today,' Heather offered.

'Oh no, it's all right, these two could do with some fresh air,' Dad said smugly. He was enjoying this.

'Are you sure, I've got nothing better to do, except some cleaning, preparing for our dinner, washing, and then I've got some shopping to do…' Heather rattled on a list of the most boring jobs imaginable as if she was showing off her itinerary to Disney World. She's nuts I swear, at our place, if you want something washed you do it yourself, Mum did everything else by magic, except shopping, it's hard to get grocery's by magic down at the IGA, the hippies wouldn't know the difference, but the others…

'Here's some money for the ferry, remember, you get off at Riverside, not Southbank, it's the fourth stop, you can see the school from the river, so just follow the boardwalk,' Dad instructed. I don't think he realises that we actually can read, and that we actually do know our way around the city.

* * *

'Avery, we're announcing it this afternoon,' Anna told me when we were down at the ferry terminal.

'Announcing what?'

'Who we are, and what we are,' Anna told me grinning evilly. She does that a lot.

'Uh, are you sure that's all that smart?' I was getting nervous, when Anna plots, she just doesn't plot; she conspires. Actually I think they mean the same thing.

'Yep, it's Friday, so we can get our stuff and then go back to school and board,' Anna explained. 'And after this week we've finished school, we go back to Hogwarts for about two weeks, then we have the grand final, we win and everyone's happy. We then move back home, turn seventeen and live happily ever after.'

'Anna, we turn seventeen when we're at Hogwarts, we don't leave until a couple of weeks after New Years.'

'What… so we're at school in snow for most of the summer holidays?' Anna hadn't thought this through.

'Yep,' I said pulling out my school diary to check what exams we had first.

'So… we miss out on Schoolies?' Anna asked.

'Yep… dammit!' I really wanted to go to Schoolies, even if most of the kids there were Muggles; it's still a great part of our Aussie tradition.

The ferry pulled up, there was one kid from our school on it, and I think her names Mary and she's in fifth year. Anna and I paid and then sat down on the back deck, in between Mary, and some boys who go to one of the Muggle schools.

I looked over at Mary, she was reading the Mirror, which is our newspaper in our world, the reason I knew it was the Mirror was because the way she had it all folded and in between herself and her bag. Mary isn't the sort of girl who would read the newspaper if it wasn't for something important happening, and having no contact to the magic world at Dad's, meant that I wanted to know what was happening.

'Hey Mary, what's up?' I asked sounding casual.

'Oh nothing really, just a little nervous about my O.W.L.s we have our Potions today,' she said when I sat down on the seat behind her leaning over to look at the paper. 'In the U.K. and Europe, Voldemort has finally come out; he's attacking Muggles everywhere. Wait, your mum was killed in the attack on Lusaka St wasn't she?'

I nodded.

'So was my brother,' Mary said softly. I found out before the funeral that there were others who had been killed in the attack, but we weren't given any names, I knew a couple of people from our school had suffered losses, because there was a little memorial for them during Wednesday assembly, but I wasn't at school that day I only heard about it through Michael.

'Sorry,' I said. 'At least I can sort of say 'I know exactly how you feel' without it being a stupid comment.'

Mary laughed, she had a nice laugh, 'well, I suppose you'll be happy to know that they caught the people who did it.'

'They did? Who was it?' I asked eager to know.

'Well, everyone was saying it was Death Eaters, but it wasn't, they were, how shall I say it? Err, enthusiasts I suppose, because they weren't real Death Eaters, they didn't have the tattoos Death Eaters are supposed to have, I think they were trying to branch the whole Voldemort-taking-over-the-world thing into Australia, needless to say they didn't succeed,' Mary said slightly cheerfully.

'That's great, well not really but at least they were caught, what's going to happen to them?' I asked trying to keep my voice down.

'I think they're getting sent to Azkaban, maybe get the Kiss, I dunno, it doesn't say much, my parents are going to speak to the Ministry today to find out exactly what's going to happen to them,' Mary told me. I looked over and saw an old woman across the aisle trying to listen into our conversation.

'Well, I hope they get the Kiss,' I said. 'And I'm glad the buggers are caught and, hey this is our stop.'

I turned around to tell Anna that we were here, but her seat was empty, I looked up and saw her walking up the pontoon out into the city.

'You two are on our Quidditch team aren't you?' Mary asked as we began to walk to school.

'Me and Anna? Yeah,' I said, Mary's a nice girl, her hearts in the right place.

'So what's Hogwarts like?'

'It's really cool, I can't wait to go back, get away from this dump, only problem is that it doesn't have electricity, no TVs, no radio, except the WWN, but everyone loves a bit of Muggle music, it's much more interesting, and no fans or anything, I bet when we get back it'll be freezing, cause it's winter over there,' I said launching into a great epic story, all about Hogwarts.

* * *

'Hey Avery, where's Anna?' Dana asked me outside my locker at morning tea.

'I have absolutely no idea,' I replied. 'She got off the ferry at the right stop, I saw her, but I guess she didn't come here, I bet she's wandering around the city.'

'Okay, thanks, Avery,' Dana said before going to her locker to get her morning tea – or a change of clothes and money. I had the feeling Dana wasn't going to be in Transfiguration next. 'Oh, wait, do you know if she would be going to Queen St or Lusaka St?'

Queen St is the Muggle hotspot, your one stop place for cool clothes, accessories and Maccas for lunch, it's basically the Muggle version of Lusaka, with its National Australia Bank, David Jones, Myer, Coles and a whole lot of takeaway shops, clothes shops, arcade, theatre and King George Park just one street down.

'I don't think she'd go into Lusaka St, there's not much there at the moment I hear cause of the attack,' I replied.

'Good point, and in Queen St she wouldn't look out of place with all the other kids wagging school,' Dana thought out loud. 'Avery, tell Vacher that I'm in the sick bay would you?'

'Are you going to find Anna?' I asked stupidly.

'Yeah, I think she needs a good old girl talk,' Dana said.

'Alright, wait, I'll walk with you to that Maccas, I want to get an ice cream,' I said getting some Muggle change out of my pocket.

'Ha all right, but I'm going to sign out sick, Miss Alderton always lets us sign out sick without calling our folks,' Dana said. 'I can get changed at the Maccas.'

Miss Alderton is the receptionist at our school, and Dana knows her pretty well, seeing as she's always getting sent to the office, those two are pretty tight. Us in the senior school –that's sixth and seventh year – are allowed to leave the grounds at lunch and morning tea, as long as we're back on time, other wise our rights are re-bucked after three offences. So I guess if Dana was walking with me down there after signing out she won't look so suspicious, it won't look as though Miss Alderton let her out early.

Okay, so the verdict? Did you like it, or did you not? Hmm I liked it, even though not much happens. I suppose that doesn't matter though does it?

* * *

**Review my minions! I mean fans :)**

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**Cheers!**


	19. I'm Lost Without You No I'm Not!

**Hey people! It's been awhile... again, I know... jeez I'm a slacker aren't I? Enjoy!**

* * *

I hate him. I really, truly hate him. I've never hated anyone in my life more than dad right now. I hate him even more than those who killed my mum. Ok, so maybe that's an exaggeration, but I do hate him.

'I can't drive you two to school today, so you have to get the ferry,' Dad said. Good, I didn't want to be driven anyway.

'I can drive them to school if you want, I'm not doing anything today,' Heather offered with one of her thousand-million-billion smiles she showed each day. I swear it's not normal to smile that often.

'Oh no, it's all right, these two could do with some fresh air,' Dad said smiling smugly. Well it's not like I'd want to be stuck in the car with either of these two Muggles. It's not like I have anything against Muggles, I mean, I'm half-blood to start with, but Dad, don't get me started, and Heather, well you know what I mean.

'Are you sure? I've got nothing better to do, except some cleaning, preparing for our dinner, washing, and then I've got some shopping to do…' she rattled her to-do-list off. I momently felt sorry for her; her life seems so _boring_.

'Here's some money for the ferry, remember, you get off at Riverside, not Southbank, it's the fourth stop, you can see the school from the river, so just follow the boardwalk,' I glared at him the whole time he said that, I know my way around the city, I've basically lived there my whole life. Avery and I have been getting the ferry into Riverside since we could walk, talk and remember things. Dad handed Avery $5 for us to pay for our tickets, notice he didn't trust me with the money?

As we were walking down the ferry terminal, which was basically across the road and left a bit, I realised, tonight was the night, the night that we get our revenge on Dad, the night we reveal ourselves to our new family. They deserved to know, I mean their children are half us, which means they may even have a little magic in themselves… then again maybe not.

'Avery, we're announcing it this afternoon,' I said when we arrived at the terminal.

'Announcing what?' God he is so stupid sometimes.

'Who we are and what we are,' I grinned at him.

'Uh, are you sure that's all that smart?' he asked, he sounds nervous. I don't blame him; Dad's a complete psycho.

'Yep, it's Friday, so we can get our stuff and then go back to school and board,' It's absolutely full proof; it's the perfect plan. 'And after this week we've finished school, we go back to Hogwarts for about two weeks, then we have the grand final, we win and everyone's happy,' everyone except stupid-idiot-proud-Sirius – I mean Black. I continued on with plan, pushing my thoughts away, 'we then move back home, turn seventeen and live happily ever after.'

'Anna, we turn seventeen when we're at Hogwarts, we don't leave until a couple of weeks after New Years.'

I could feel my face expressions change from my big happy smile, to a confused frown.

'What… so we're at school in snow for most of the summer holidays?' I'm going to freeze! I'll be all pale for almost a year… that's almost a years worth of winter!

'Yep,' Avery said pulling his school diary out of his bag.

'So… we miss out on Schoolies?' I asked.

'Yep… dammit!' We both really wanted to go to Schoolies, all the students finally finishing school, Muggles and us, one big party down at the Gold Coast…

The ferry pulled up and Avery and I got on taking a seat up the back. There was one girl from our school on it. Her name's Mary Jones and she's in fifth year, she sits at my table at dinner. That's right, at dinner on Sunday through to Monday we have a seating plan for dinner. Friday's and Saturday's we don't have it because they just feed us fish and chips and chicken pieces, cheap stuff like that, and we get to sit around in the school grounds. I know, it sounds like a mad house eh?

There were some other kids on the ferry, boys, going to one of the private schools, just mucking around as guys do. Avery went over and began to talk to Mary, leaving me to think through my thoughts, or to just doodle in my books. I chose the latter. I sat there with my pen in my hand trying to think what to draw and looked out at New Farm Park that was slowly approaching for inspiration. Now I'm not saying that New Farm looks anything like Hogwarts or the Forbidden Forest, by the large oaks in the park and it's beautiful green lawns made me immediately think of Hogwarts. Yeah, I just realised I'm insane. I began drawing a stick-boy standing on some grass underneath a tree – I know, I know, I draw like a five year old, leave me alone – with messy black hair and blue dots for eyes, a squiggly line for the mouth with my red pen and a speech bubble out the side of it that said, 'Hi! My name's Sirius and I'm a dickhead!' and then a stick-girl with a crazy grin on her face and a wand with a red light coming out of it that said, 'that's right! Take that you idiot! _Rictusempra!' _And then Sirius would immediately start laughing and laugh so hard he'd explode. I've got to stop thinking of him.

I scrunched the picture up and threw it into my bag as the ferry went under the Story Bridge and I could see All Hallows and the approaching Riverside dock. I jumped up automatically deciding I could not, and would not go to school today, because I was far to tired for it. I mean I was woken up at six-thirty. _Six-thirty!_ Who even gets up at that time? I mean it's still dark for God's sake!

I walked off the ferry and up to where the little fountain was that had ducks swimming in it and a bunch of coins in the bottom before continuing on my way to my destination of Queen St where I would browse the shops, get something to eat and then go sit in Myer or David Jones and watch the TVs and movies in there for the rest of the day. See, cheap thrills aren't hard to come by. Maybe I'll even go find one of the game places where Muggles go and play games where they shoot each other.

The city loomed up over me, it was no New York, that's for sure, but it was still a sight after you've been up somewhere in remote Scotland in a castle surrounded by not very much at all. Except that cute little village, that was nice, my favourite place was the Shrieking Shack there… not that it ever shrieked but it was still good, had a nice air to it, and nice view probably.

But back to the city, I walked through the streets trying to remember the way to Queens St. The problem is, that I know how to get there, but that's only after I go through Lusaka St, which you can enter (or exit in the case of finding Queen St) through the Out-of-Order toilets next to the King George Park. No one ever suspects a thing, cause Muggles don't want to go there. So I'm guessing if I find the park, then I'll just walk across the road, then down that street that has all the hooker bars and night clubs and ta-da I'll be right outside the Louis Vuitton shop and in Queen St. As far as I know the closest Lusaka St entrance is the King George Park one, so really all I have to do is apparate there and then I'll be on my way.

I had to find a place quiet with no Muggles watching. I crossed a driveway as a silver Mercedes came hurtling out of it stopping just in front of me and beeped the horn ferociously. And like any normal teenager I threw an obscene gesture for the driver and slammed my hands down on the front of the car. Big mistake. The bloke whose hair was greying and was dressed in an expensive suit driving it opened the door (forgetting to close it… stupid idiot) and began verbally abusing me. Naturally I did what I always do.

'Maybe you should watch where you're driving your bloody car! Don't you know any road rules? There's a footpath here, for ped- ' I can't remember that word, 'people you idiot!' Maybe I should snap off the little 'M' thing on the front of his car. And then I continued in the usual Anna McKeller way, I ran, down the driveway and into the car park, I could hear the man swearing behind me and beginning to chase me. Poor guy, the second I was out of sight I apparated away. Guess he won't be able to take me to the cops or to Dad's.

I found myself in Lusaka St, it was back in order, and everyone was back to his or her usual chirpy, eccentric selves. Half the shops may have been burnt to a crisp a couple of weeks ago, but thanks to a little thing called magic they were open and looked normal. Every shop, except Hattie's Hair, there was a 'Position Vacant' sign in the window and in the corner a little table with a candle, a picture of Mum, a picture of Mum, me, Avery and Rhett, a hairbrush and some curlers. A little tear welled up in the corner of my eye and I felt someone tap on my shoulder.

I spun around and it was Hattie. Hattie was one of my Mum's friends from her school days and of course work, Mum was a co-owner of Hattie's Hair, but she said it was ok to call it after Hattie cause Hattie and Gillian's Hair doesn't really sound as fun. Hattie had the big hair that everyone has, it was the type of hair that you tried to style but promptly gave up and threw it into a ponytail when it just looked stupid. I've always like Hattie, she was one of those people you instantly liked, she was bubbly, outgoing and outrageous, and wasn't afraid to try something new.

'Hey Anna,' she said cheerfully. She had been at the funeral, but we didn't speak much, in fact she hadn't been able to speak, she had been hit with a spell that didn't quite work out and had sprouted a couple of large green boils and lost the ability to speak for a while during the attack.

'Hey Hattie,' I said trying to look normal.

'How come you're not at school? Don't your exams start on Monday?' since when had Hattie been all into attending school. The days when Mum wasn't working she let me and some mates come in and just experiment with all her hair products.

'I had to get out of there for a bit, I'm just really stressed at the moment and felt like going into D.J.'s or Myer and watch a movie or two,' Hattie had been the one who got me into that, she was a Muggle born and it was a normal thing that Muggles do, or so I thought until some old hag (as in old woman not that monstrosity that exists in our world) chased me and Jazz out once.

'Well I'm on my lunch break, do you want to come with me? I'm going to one of those quaint little Muggle shops,' Hattie said. 'We need to catch up we haven't talked in ages.'

'All right, in Queen St? Because I've been trying to find it and thought I'd come here to start off with,' I told her.

Hattie laughed, 'alright, did you come from school to get here?'

'Nah, Dad made Avery and myself catch the ferry into school, so I thought I'd go into the City instead,' see it's all Dads' fault that I'm whopping school.

'Did you get off at Riverside?'

'Yeah…' I have a feeling I'm about to feel like an idiot.

'You do realise that all you had to do was cross that road, then up that other road until you reached the National Bank, and then turn left and that's Queen St,' Hattie said and then began laughing at the face I pulled.

'Ah you never cease to amaze me, you're just like your Mum,' she said in a happy kind of sad voice.

I smiled a happy kind of sad smile, 'thanks,' I've always thought we were alike.

We left through the 'back door' to Lusaka St and then we walked out of the Out-of-Order public toilets and into King George Park. It's a nice park, has a nice statue of which I'm guessing is King George.

Hattie led me to this lovely little coffee shop and we sat down. 'Do you know how these places work? Do they come and take your order? Or do we have to go and order up at the counter?'

I looked at Hattie blankly, 'I have absolutely no idea, and I haven't been to a place like this in years.'

Just in the nick of time we saw a woman come in and order something at the counter and then go and take a seat.

'I guess that answers that,' Hattie said getting up. 'What do you want? My shout.'

'You have Muggle money?' I asked surprised.

'No I have a credit card!' she replied happily.

I shook my head, feeling sorry for whichever bank she was swindling, 'I'll get a cappuccino and… ooh and a cheese, bacon and steak pie,' I replied looking at the menu.

'Ok,' she said and went off to order.

I shook my head once more and then pulled a magazine out of my bag and began reading about how young witches have to be careful when they buy love potions because some apparently haven't got all the needed ingredients and that a wizard in New Zealand died as the result of the potion exploding in his stomach.

'That's New Zealanders for you,' I said to myself.

'What's with New Zealanders?' Hattie asked as she sat down opposite me passing me my cheese, bacon and steak pie, Hattie used to live in Auckland, so I won't be telling her anything.

'Hmm? Oh nothing what so ever, it's just that some kid in Whykickamoocow –' I didn't get to finish a) because Hattie started jinxing my legs under the table and b) a guy – a waiter I guess – brought our coffees over.

Hattie gets quite patriotic when Mum and I bag out the Kiwis and also when there's any Australia verse New Zealand sporting events, on which both accounts is fairly often. Well mainly the latter now I guess seeing as there's – no I wont think like that. Whykickamoocow is an invention of Hayley's dad, Sam, because all the towns in New Zealand are ridiculously named (although we are in no place to comment, England is just as bad. Ha, I bet you though I was going to say Australia then didn't you?) and Whykickamoocow is just this joke we have about them. Along with the whole sheep-fuckers, but we don't need to go there do we?

'If I hear about Whykickamoocow one more time, I swear I blast you to next century,' Hattie threatened. Monica said the same thing to me last year; she's a Maori girl in my year. 'Now tell me, how's the school championships going?'

'Oh really good, we haven't lost a game yet, our last game was pretty close, it was against Hogwarts, where we were playing. We wouldn't have won if it wasn't for me you know, I gave their Seeker a concussion, knocked him out, he was out for a couple of days too, has a big bandage 'round his head,' I said Hattie was laughing at me. 'What?'

'You haven't really changed you know,' she smiled, 'you always brag.'

I threw a packet of sugar at her head.

'Alright, continue,' she said grinning.

'Ok, well yeah, it's really cold there, and I've adjusted to their weather and so I'm practically melting here,' I said.

'Yeah you are looking a bit pink, not used to so much sun eh?'

'Well it's getting into winter there so the sun's coming up later, setting later and I'm more prone to sleeping in and not wanting to get up in the mornings.'

Hattie laughed, 'met any cute boys? English, American, European, African? There the main countries that are there right?'

'Well yeah, but Europe's not a country, it's a continent and the same for Africa,' all those years at a Muggle primary school and what do I get? I get to know what the world looks like; it's countries, oceans and continents.

'Whatever, so how bout the boys?'

I groaned, nearly everyone I know wants to know the answer to that question.

'There's this one boy, Sirius, and well, we got along great, we even had a little romance going there for a while, but then I suppose we both way to competitive and hate losing and well, he's the opposition and –'

'Don't tell me he's the one you knocked unconscious,' I could tell she was biting back laughter.

'No, that was his best friend, but Sirius is the Beater, and well it was basically me versus him, and then when we bet Hogwarts, he couldn't take losing and long story short we had fight, I blew up at him, he called me a wimp for screaming and then running and then we shouted some more and then I came home, and Hayley's probably kicking his – why are you laughing? This is a serious issue!'

Hattie was laughing so hard by this time she was crying. 'I know… I know, but you kids –'

'Teenagers,' I corrected pretending to be serious.

'Right, kids, teenagers, same thing, you both act like silly little things like winning and losing are so important, and you get so worked up over it,' Hattie said. That was possibly the most adultish thing she has ever said, aside a few comments to men over the past years, but I wont go into that. She looked at her watch, 'well I have to get back to work, nice catching up with you, come in sometime soon and I'll do your hair.'

'Alright see ya, oh, where about is D.J.'s or Myer?' I asked quickly.

'David Jones is a couple of stores up, the big building, and Myer is on the other side of the road and a few more meters up, have a good time,' Hattie said, 'oh and maybe you should make amends with your Beau.'

'Maybe,' I said before skipping off feeling better and hoping a good movie was on in the electronics department.

When I was down in Queen St I got a few nasty looks from passers by, most of the people who shop in Queen St are rather wealthy so seeing a truanting school girl probably didn't agree with them at all. It didn't matter though that truanting schoolgirl went to All Hallows, that very expensive and very hard to get into private school on the river. It's pretty funny because Muggles try and get their kids in, but they can't cause they're Muggles and they go off thinking how snobbish and rude the secretaries at that school are. It was pretty funny when I was at Jordana's house this one time, because one of her mum's friends was over and she was questioning us on exactly what we did to get in. It was horrendous.

I decided to pay a visit into good old D.J.'s because it was closer and well, I've been kicked out of Myer way to many times. I found my way to the top floor with the cushy seats and the TVs, they had an old Alfred Hitchcock on, which wasn't to bad, it kept me guessing what was happening and who killed whom. It's quite a good way to take your mind of other things, or people.

I was just at the end when the guy was running to the top of the bell tower to see whom the killer was when a hand clamped down on my shoulder. I instantly jumped and spun around preparing my excuse for who ever it was, be it a cop asking why I wasn't at school or a nasty woman trying to kick me out of the store. Thankfully it was none of these things. It was Dana.

'What are you doing here?' I asked already knowing two exact possibilities of what she was going to say.

'I could ask you the same thing, but my answer to your question would be looking for you,' she said smirking saying both of the possible answers I thought she was going to say. She sat down next to me, 'so want to talk?'

'About what?' I asked trying to act all innocent. Innocent doesn't really work on me.

'You know damn straight what I want to talk to you about,' she replied getting all serious on me. Why is every going all serious today?

'Excuse me, either throw that drink in the bin or leave the store madam,' said one of the women who worked in the department.

'Right, we'll leave right now, c'mon Anna, let's go outside it's to cold in here,' Dana said getting up. She is such a scab; she would never waste any sort of food or drink.

'Actually, I fine the temperature in here quit pleasant,' I replied just to annoy her.

'Yeah, that's because you've been up in England or where ever it was you went,' Dana said.

'Scotland Dana, Scotland,' I corrected.

'Same thing, all part of the UK,' she shrugged sitting down on a bench. 'Right, so talk.'

'About what?'

'Everything, you know what I mean,' she said raising and eyebrow. I burst out laughing; every time she raises her eyebrow it makes me laugh, especially when she starts wiggling them.

'Alright, stop that,' I laughed. 'So, where do I start?'

'At the beginning would be helpful,' Dana replied.

'That's not a very original line,' I pointed out.

'Stop stalling,' Dana said knowing exactly what I was doing.

'I'm not stalling, oh alright, let's see, it all started when, well I'll skip our nice little romance and the fight between me and Hayley,' I began.

'You and Hayley had fight?'

'Yeah, and like always it didn't last very long.'

'About what?'

'Avery, now do you want to hear my story or not?'

'Yes but – what happened between Hayley and Avery?'

'Correction, what's _happening,_' I replied grinning.

Dana opened her mouth in a big O shape and then broke into a smile, jumped up and screamed 'I knew it! I knew it would happen!' and started saying 'oh my God' over and over again.

'Dana, calm down,' I said smiling at her weirdness.

'Alright, so Hayley and Avery are going out, what else happened?'

'Well like I said, I had a romance, which ended in disaster as per usual.'

'Not entirely true, remember when you and Harley dated? That didn't end in disaster, you're still friends,' Dana pointed out.

'Jordana Davies, you know as well as I that Harley and I were on and off for over a year and at the end of it we realised that we were hardly going out, we were just friends with benefits,' I told her trying to sound intellectual.

She scowled at me, 'finish the story, who did you get with?'

I sighed, 'well, his name is Sirius Black, we were happily going out, his family are all dark wizards and witches and supposedly he's the only good guy in the family. He's tall, dark and handsome, plays Beater for Hogwarts – the English school – and can't stand losing, especially to me.

'He reckons I cheated in the last game and knocking out James – his best friend who is also their Seeker – wasn't fair. Obviously he doesn't know the rules of Quidditch and being a Beater I am clearly allowed to knock a Bludger into the other Seekers head, knocking him unconscious so that we win and so that Tilly can get the Snitch and we win.'

Dana whistled long and low, 'well… hmm… can I bash him?'

'Sorry Dan, Hayley beat you to it,' I said almost regrettably. Dana can get a little, erm, violent when she gets in fights, she's been known to throw books at teachers, she was almost expelled in fifth year, but we convinced the Principal that she was a smart student and deserved a second chance. So she only got suspended.

'Oh, alright then, well you better make it to the grand final of the comp,' she said seriously.

'Course we will, but what has that got to do with anything?' I asked puzzled.

'Ha! Didn't you know? The sixth years and us seniors get to come and watch!' that was the most exciting thing I heard all day.

* * *

**I tried to make it longer, hope it was long enough, now review! And perhaps I'll update sooner... I'm not gonna even bother with excuses... except I'm working at Woolies now and I've been exhausted... cringe theres those excuse again.**

**Cheers!**


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